A Matter of Chance
by Odin13
Summary: "Kurosaki is strong, maybe even strong enough to beat a vice captain but there's nothing wrong with hedging your bets." Urahara goes to Koenma for help before Ichigo invades Soul Society. Crossover: Bleach/YYH
1. Prologue: A Call for Help

**Disclaimer – Neither Bleach nor Yu Yu Hakusho belong to not me. I'm not entirely sure who owns them actually.**

**3/04/09 - edited prologue and first chapter and I'm halfway done with the 3rd chapter. It's gonna be a long one guys XD**

**Prologue: A Call for Help**

"I didn't expect you to show up after we bailed you out last time. Let me guess. You need another favor." The words came muffled from a pacifier blocked mouth. The mouth belonged to a blue clad toddler sitting behind a very large wooden desk.

"It's not for me. It's for a student of mine." These words came from man wearing a green and white stripped bucket hat. He had a cane in his hand and sat in a wooden chair in front of the desk.

"Oh? And what do you want for your student Urahara?" The toddler's head was bent low over the desk so that all that could be seen was the top of his blue hat.

"I want one of your Reikai Tantei to help him infiltrate Soul Society, take on the Shinigami, and take back a woman named Kuchiki Rukia, before they execute her." Urahara's own hat was pulled low over his face so that if you wouldn't be able to see his face.

"I know that this is a big thing to ask, Koenma. Kurosaki is strong, and he would be able to take down your average shinigami and many of the seated officers no problem. He might even have what it takes defeat some of the vice captains but he doesn't have the strength or skill to take on a captain. And there's nothing wrong with hedging a bet."

At these words, Koenma looked up from his desk to stare at the former shinigami in front of him. He leaned back in his high backed chair, and placed his pen down on his desk. He looked at Urahara, before saying, "You're asking a lot. More than I owe to you in any case. You're asking me to start a war."

Urahara started to protest. He even managed to get a word in before Koenma slammed his hand onto his desk, "Don't play games with me! That's exactly what you're asking! You're asking me to repay a debt that I owe to you, when you saved one of my detectives from a hollow that she would've been able to beat if she knew how to kill it. The thing would have been dead if it was anything else, hell if she had any kind of weapon it would've been destroyed in minutes."

Koenma took a deep breath before saying, "No. If any of my subordinates enter soul society, they would be starting a war that hasn't happened since the Creator made the world. You know the history. I told you myself."

Urahara sighed knowing the young Prince was right. "When Reikai and Seiretai meet in battle to decide which would take care of the people of Earth, it caused chaos that was never seen before or since. People were eaten by Hollows and Demons, and it allowed the scum to rise in power. Strength that would've been easily checked in the beginning if Seiretai and Reikai weren't fighting. The treaty stated that Shinigami would stay out of Spirit Detectives and the Spirit Force's way and if either moved on the other's territory it would constitute an act of war. The demon's and apparitions and fighters of them were left to Reikai while Hollow and everyone else were left to Seiretai."

Urahara knew when he was beat. "You are right. It is too high a price. Thank you for your time Koenma." Urahara rose to leave, and was stopped when Koenma told him to sit.

"I know I'm right. You know I'm right. But I can still help." Koenma said. "You asked me to ask one of my detectives to attack Soul Society with your student, which would make Soul Society declare war on Spirit World. I can't commit our resources to you, but I can ask a Reikai Tantei who's retired to help. Most of them only want to live their own lives. But there's one who might help. I've heard that he's been itching for a new fight anyway."

Urahara smiled, hopes soaring, "Oh and who is this young man. Some one bored with his retirement?"

Koenma smirked and said "Not at all. He's the new Toushin, the heir of Raizen and an extremely powerful demon.

Urahara looked shocked, "A Toushin? You're saying that the Toushin would be willing to help. Believe me, if he can keep his battle lust under control he would be a huge help but are you sure that I would be able to trust a demon."

"He's only half demon, and has no problem controlling himself. And after he knows what needs to be done he usually has no problem with it. A very capable young man."

"What's his name?"

"Urameshi Yusuke."

Urahara nodded thoughtfully before saying, "If you're sure. If he agrees I would like him to meet me at my shop in two days. He and the rest will be leaving for Soul Society in eighteen days."

"I probably shouldn't tell Yusuke when he's leaving or he wouldn't show up until then," Koenma said with a smile.

"Thank you, old friend. You have no idea what this means to me." Urahara bowed and walked out with a smile on his face. If this Urameshi the Toushin, was what Koenma said he was, then Ichigo might have a chance after all.

**A/N – I live on reviews :)**

**Next time – Who is this guy and why does he make us all look like little pansy boys when we fight him?!**


	2. Chapter 1: The Duel

**Disclaimer: YYH and Bleach don't belong to me. Which really sucks cause otherwise Yu Yu Hakusho woulda had more seasons.**

**Chapter 1: The Duel**

_'You have got to be kidding me'_ Yusuke thought. _'The way Koenma went on about this guy you'da thought that he was this serious guy who knew everything. Instead he's...this._

The former shinigami stood in front of his shop in an old samurai-ish top with billowing pants and a green robe thing over it. His green and white bucket hat was pulled low over his face, and he held a fan and a cane. The fan was spread in front of his face hiding his features.

"You're Urahara Kisuke?" Yusuke asked dully.

_'Yusuke I need you to go to Karakura town and help Urahara Kisuke. Don't worry about finding him, he'll find you. Even if he didn't you'd be able to find him. He stands out in a crowd. There was no way this was anyone but Urahara. Feh, stupid toddler._

"Yes, yes. I'm so glad you were able to help," Urahara said.

"Come, come." He snapped his fan shut and walked into his shop, clogs clattering, talking about some subject. His voice was light and he didn't seem to be talking about anything important. Something about going through a gate. Yusuke suppressed an annoyed growl, and pulled his bag more securely over one shoulder before following Urahara into the shop.

"Koenma said you needed my help?" What Koenma actually said was that if he went he'd be able to fight a lot of people. When that didn't work Koenma threatened to take away his pension. When Yusuke said that it was barely anything anyway, and he always had Raizin's money, Koenma said that he'd raise his pension. Yusuke finally agreed.

"He also said that you'd give me a good fight." He actually hadn't but Yusuke hadn't been in a good scrap in weeks and was getting antsy. Besides what they didn't know, wouldn't hurt them.

"Ah, so it's a fight you want?" he said, poking him with his fan before hiding his face with it again. "I would love to fight you but all of a sudden my wrist hurts so I wouldn't give you a good fight anyway."

Yusuke suppressed another growl. "There was no need to make excuses if he didn't want to fight. Besides, Kurosaki needs to regain his shinigami powers and he still has five hours left. When he finally unlocks his shikai, I'm sure he will do whatever he thinks he needs to do to gain strength against Seiretai."

He looked at the half demon with one eye and a smile, "Unless you wish to gain a Zanpakuto of your own?"

Yusuke stared at him, "I've never had any need for a weapon besides my own fists and strength. I don't think I'll need one now. Is there anyone else who can fight. I need to know what kind of people I'll be up against."

Yusuke was all business now. There was something to fight, and he needed to know what they could do.

"Yes, yes. As I said before, my wrist hurts and I am unable to fight, but I am sure Yoruichi would be happy to show you what a shinigami could do." They had gone through the front by now and Urahara began walking down a flight of stairs to a sun filled room.

"Where is he?" Yusuke asked.

"He isn't here right now, but I'm sure he'll be back after Kurosaki is done regaining his powers," Urahara said.

"That doesn't answer my question."

"No it doesn't." Urahara smiled. "Make no mistake Urameshi. I'm glad that you have come to help, but as of now, your responsibility is to give Kurosaki some real fighting experience against an opponent of real power. That means that you have no need to know what my friends are doing as it has no impact on Kurosaki's training. After you and he are ready to enter Soul Society you will help him and his friends rescue a woman named Kuchiki Rukia."

"And if I refuse to help?" Yusuke asked.

"Then he and his friends will most likely be killed by the captains and lieutenants, even with Yoruichi's help," Urahara wasn't going to lie to him.

"They all have the strength to defeat most of the seated officers but they will have to overcome the strongest in Soul Society to reach the Soukyoku, which is used to execute prisoners. They will need your experience and power if they're going to make it to the Soukyoku and rescue Rukia without being killed."

"Don't worry about me not going," Yusuke said, "but I want to know exactly what I'm getting into. You want me to help Kurosaki. But according to you, all of Kurosaki's friends are going to be going with him."

Yusuke smiled before saying, "I'm training them too."

"That isn't needed Urameshi," Urahara said, "I already have someone training them."

"That may be true, but I can only test Kurosaki. Push his limits. I can't actually train him."

Urahara started to protest saying that of course he could train Kurosaki before Yusuke interrupted him. "I can't swing a sword to save my life. I can't teach him strategy, or how to use his strengths against an untested opponent. Don't get me wrong, I can still help. I can test his power, how to match reishi against reishi. I can teach him to fight if he ever loses his sword. I can test his speed. And I can take apart his weaknesses until he doesn't have a chance no matter what he can do,.

Yusuke looked at Urahara seriously. "Kurosaki may need help, but I can only show him how to use raw strength and what he's doing wrong when he fights. I really won't take long. I'd say he could probably last five hours before he'd be down."

"I think you're underestimating him," Urahara said with a smile. "But I see your point. I'll have them brought to the shop."

"Now…about my fight," Yusuke said with a sly smile.

Urahara smirked for a second before replacing it with a care-free smile. "As I said, Urameshi, I injured my wrist and am unable to fight with you."

Yusuke squinted at him before grumbling, "What I wouldn't give to have Hiei here. He's always in the mood for a good fight."

Urahara threw his head back and laughed. And laughed. And laughed. He laughed so much that his legs gave out and he started rolling on the floor, legs jerking as Urahara tried and failed to control himself. After a few moments Urahara jumped up, fan out, chuckling.

"My apologies, Urameshi-san. I just never met anyone who was so eager to fight, " Urahara said laughter on the edge of his voice.

Yusuke glared at him before walking the rest of the way down the stairs. Urahara followed him chuckling.

"I always wanted to know what a Reikei Tantei could do. I think I could manage one attack."

Yusuke smiled, "Not exactly what I had in mind but it'll have to do," He drove a fist into his hand. "Let's go."

They walked into Urahara's basement and up to the large hole in one side of the room. Standing around it were two little kids, who looked to be about 10 or 12 years old.

"Who are the brats?" Yusuke asked.

"Who are you calling a brat!" The red haired one yelled.

"You, brat."

The red haired kid was about to attack Yusuke when the girl grabbed the back of his shirt. "Ano, Jinta, there's no reason to attack him," She said quietly.

Jinta balled up a fist and hit her in the head, "Shut up Ururu! Nobody asked you!"

"Hey! When a girl doesn't do anything to you, you don't attack her! GOT IT!" Yusuke had picked the kid up by the back of his shirt and was now yelling into his face. Jinta had his eyes closed and his arms covering his head.

"There's no need to spit in my face," he grumbled.

"Spit in your face, huh," he yelled back. "Brat you're lucky you're like five years old cause if you were any older then you'd be dead meat."

"I'm not five! I'm twelve! Do I look like a five year old!" Jinta yelled back, face red.

"You look like a little brat!"

Urahara just looked at Yusuke and said, "These are Jinta and Ururu. They help out around the shop. And Jinta what have I told you about hitting Ururu."

"Don't do it."

"That's right. This is Urameshi Yusuke. He'll be helping Kurosaki and his friends invade Soul Society. Now, go back to watching Kurosaki."

"Fine. Come on Ururu."

"It was nice to meet you Urameshi-san," the girl mumbled before following Jinta back to the hole.

"Those are some weird kids," Yusuke said softly.

"Yes, but Jinta does care about Ururu."

"I'll believe that when I see it."

"Well, if you still want your fight then you should follow me. We don't want want to disturb Kurosaki. He needs his focus right now."

"What's he doing anyway?" Yusuke asked, following Urahara. "All I could sense was a slightly stronger that normal human. A little stronger but nothing special. Something he could've picked up from hanging around apparitions or demons actually."

"This is true. Right now," Urahara said. "When Kurosaki was a shinigami he actually had the power of around a tenth seat. When he was injured by Kuchiki Byakuya, most of his powers were sealed. So when he hopefully regains that power in four hours and forty five minutes, he will have all the power that he had before his injury."

"He's lucky. He wouldn't stand a chance against an E-class demon right now, let along your average shinigami."

"True."

They walked a while in silence. When they were far enough away from Jinta and Ururu, and the hole Kurosaki was in, they set the rules for their fight.

"It's not a fight," Yusuke said annoyed. "It's more of a duel than a fight."

Urahara ignored him. Each of them would have one chance to attack the other. Whoever did more damage win.

Urahara went first, "Awake, Benihime." His sword shifted. To grew longer and wider for one thing. The handle was grew and curved at the end and there was a ribbon hanging off of it. He held up his sword and began gathering his power. The air grew heavy and Jinta and Ururu looked over at the two figures.

"Why would The Owner draw his sword to fight this guy?" Jinta asked. "There's no reason to if he's gonna help. And if Owner asked for help then he's gotta be strong. Sides I doubt he could beat Owner anyway"

"Maybe he wants to see what he can do," Ururu said softly.

"Yeah." There was a pause. "I'm goin over there," and with that he jumped up and ran over to the two.

"Jinta," Ururu said. "They said… aw," and she followed him.

Tessai looked up at the sky from the hole where Kurosaki was meditating.

_'Kisuke…I hope you know what you're doing. That man is dangerous.'_

Urahara glowed to Yusuke's eyes and he's power was huge. _'Nowhere near mine now though. If this was three years ago he probably would've stood a chance. But not when I've had three years of training in Makai.'_

Urahara swung his sword, stepping forward and unleashed his power. A red wave flew forward toward Yusuke who stood there waiting for it to reach him. Right before it connected, Urahrara thought he saw something blue flash but he had to shield his eyes at the flash from the attack. When the light and dust died down Urahara stared at Yusuke. He was surrounded by a blue aura which completely protected him from the attack.

"Stronger than I expected, but still beatable. If I tried to block that attack three years ago, I probably would've been seriously injured." As far as he could tell, Yusuke was completely unharmed. That blue aura was able to shield him.

While preparing for Yusuke's attack he thought, _'An aura is the visible manifestation of a person's power. There's no way for it to block any kind of attack. I wonder how he did it._

While he was thinking, the aura had slowly moved from around his body to gather at his hand. It was pointed at him in the shape of a finger gun. A shining, ball of energy gathered at the tip of his finger. "Reigan."

The beam was huge. Bigger than your average person. Bigger than Chad. If he had to put a size to it, it was probably as big as a small van. A coming fast. "Call out, Benihime."

It hit. And it hurt.

**A/N: Two thousand words. Not as big as I wanted but it is where I wanted to end. Not exactly what the last chapter said would happen but it kinda is. Yusuke beats down Urahara. But I did set up the next chapter. If anyone has a site with the words from the episodes and stuff, please tell me cause that'd be awesome.**

**Next time: Orihime? Chad? What are you doing here? Why are you training with that guy? Haha, you guys look ridiculous. What do you mean I'm gonna do the same thing? My life is about to get a whole lot worse isn't it. Sigh.**


	3. Chapter 2: You Call this Training?

**Disclaimer – neither YYH nor Bleach belong to me. If they did I would have so much more fun. **

**A Writer**** Wannabee****: I just wanna say thanks for all the help you've given me in the general story line and story continuity and stuff. Our talks/emails have been a great help. You're undoubtedly the most helpful person I've talked to so far (not that I've talked to many). You think about what I actually say and criticize me about it. It's a great help, and probably stopped me from making mistakes further down the story and kept it from turning into a general, boring story (not sure if I'm being to hard on my self, but I probably wouldn't've been happy with it if I didn't get your help). If you didn't help then chances are the story would be worse if I was writing without your help.**

**Thank God is finally working. I was talking about actually adding a lot more to this chapter but I only managed to get about another page in. A page which I think added very nicely to Yusuke's character and how he's trying to help Ichigo and his friends.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE AT THE END ABOUT HOW I'M GONNA WRITE MY STORIES FROM NOW ON. PLEASE READ.**

**A/N 3/9: Awesome chapter if I say so myself. Totally revamped with the help of Writer Wannabee. Hope you guys enjoy it edited  
**

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**Chapter 2: You Call this Training!!**

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A ginger haired, well endowed girl and a tall, dark Mexican boy followed a black cat as they walk a path towards the Urahara Shouten.

"Why are we doing this again Yoruichi-san?" Orihime asked. For the past few days, she and Sado-kun had been practicing their powers in an abandoned warehouse. They wanted to help Kurosaki-kun get Kuchiki-san back from Soul Society, and they needed the practice. Sado-kun could still only use his attack once a day, and Orihime needed more practice.

"We're going to Urahara's shop because we think that it'll be easier to train you there. We have some extra hands to help so I won't be doing all the work for once," Yoruichi said.

Orihime stopped in the middle of the street, eyes tearing up. "You don't want to help us Yoruichi-san?"

Yoruichi looked back and blanched. The cat didn't know how to deal with a crying girl. "It's not that Orihime. Of course I want to help you. But I'm going to get help training you and it means that I'll have more time to pay attention to each of you."

"Ok!" Orihime replied, happy again, before skipping off to the shop. Sado and Yoruichi stared after her.

"Is she always like this?" Yoruichi asked.

"Most of the time," Yasutora answered,.

Yoruichi sighed. "I hope we don't have to deal with this all the time."

"She's not that bad."

"Are you coming? I'll race you," Orihime shouted, waving her arms in the air.

"That's not really nec-" Sado started to say.

"On your mark get set go!" Orihime shouted before racing down the street.

Sado chased after her.

When they reached the shop, Orihime danced around chanting, "I win, I win, I win." Sado was leaning over his knees, breathing heavily.

"What took you so long?"

They both turned to the shop and saw the black cat lounging on the roof. They gaped at it. The gears began turning in their heads wondering how a cat got here before them.

"Come on. Your new teacher is waiting."

They went into the shop and down into the basement.

"Wow," Orihime cried, taking in the surroundings. Down in the basement, they saw the canyons, the clear and sunny sky. "This is amazing."

From a far two figures were chasing each other around, swinging their swords.

"Why is Urahara-san chasing Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime inquired softly.

"They're training," Yoruichi answered.

Lounging on a rock watching them was a dark haired man in a red jacket, white t-shirt, blue jeans and a pair of sneakers. Every so often, he would shout at Kurosaki-kun telling him what he was doing wrong. And each time, their friend would turn at the man and shouts back that he knew what he was doing. Urahara-san seeing the opportunity would thrust his blade at his opponent. Then the stranger yelled once more at the soon-to-be invader for not paying attention.

Eventually Urahara noticed the other group standing there and shoved Ichigo into a pillar of rock.

"Ah, Yoruichi-san, so nice to see you again," he ran toward the cat, took it to his hands and twirled around with his arms up in the air. When the feline scraped his hands with its claws he tossed the cat into the air before falling to his knees. He opened his mouth, set to wail on how rude his closest friend had been, when someone from behind him cleared his throat. He turned to its direction, slowly reached for his hat then bowed his head a little as an apology.

"I'd like you to meet, Urameshi Yusuke. He'll be training you with Yoruichi from now on. Yusuke-san, this is Inoue Orihime and Yasutora Sado," he said, pointing to the man on the rock with a smile.

Upon hearing Urahara's introduction, Yusuke removed his jacket and jumped down from the rock. "What you're going to do is attack me. And then I'll tell you how to help you do better."

"What?" Orihime asked in shock.

Yusuke appeared in front of her, his eyes focused, "You attack me, or I'll attack you."

Sado transformed his arm and swung at Yusuke barely missing Orihime, but also Yusuke moved backwards evading the attack.

"Good but you need to be faster."

The taller man ran after him flinging punches out, one after another. Yusuke weaved and dodged around his fists.

"Better, but if you can't hit me like this you don't stand a chance against a stronger shinigami."

"Tsubaki. Koten Zanshun, I reject!" A beam of light shot at the former detective and was batted away. It turned into a little fairy man in a black and red outfit. He flew back at the girl and started yelling at her and yanking her hair. His yells was about the woman and her uselessness.

Yusuke stared at the little man pulling Inoue's hair for a minute then just started laughing. He clutched his stomach and stumbled around slightly trying to keep from falling down.

Sado's shoulder glowed. He flung his arm at Yusuke and a large blue ray shot from his hands. Yusuke, noticing the Mexican actions, stopped laughing and stared at the rush of energy. "Well, this is gonna suck." He crossed his arms in front of his body and waited for impact.

The blue light hit the target and stopped. It pushed forward against its challenger but wasn't able to overcome him. The Toushin was pushed backwards as the light kept moving forward inch by inch until finally he started moving forward as well.

It was a fight between an immoveable object and an unbeatable force. They kept fighting against each other until Sado collapsed to the ground, power spent. He stood up and breathed heavily, shoulders slumped, and knees bent.

"Well, that's a lot better than I was expecting," Yusuke said. "That was strong, enough to take out a low C-class."

He walked out of the dust and smirked. "More than enough for your regular shinigami. But there are going to be people stronger than that in Seireitai." He crossed his arms, lightly bruised due the attack, over his chest.

"Let's get to work."  


* * *

Inoue and Sado sat with legs crossed in front. The two paid Yusuke their full attention to whatever he has to say.

"What do you know about your power?"

They looked at each other then back at Yusuke. "Huh?"

"Do you know how your power works? What do you do to use it? Is it an emotion, a thought? Does it just happen, or do you actually focus on your power."

The female raised her hand, "Ano, I call out an incantation and the _Shun Shun Rikka_, either shields, heals, or attacks. Well that's what they said."

"That's how you use your power, but not how it works," Yusuke said. "Who're they?"

Orihime perked up and smiled before saying, "Oh, they're _Shun Shun Rikka_." She summoned the fairies and her hairclips glowed before appearing before her in six glowing forms. She smiled and talked to them before a fairy dressed in black pulled her hair and chased her around.

"Alright," Yusuke said slowly before turning to Sado. "Let's do this differently. I want you to focus. Turn your mind inward to spirit. That should be where your power is."

Sado nodded and closed his eyes, breathing slowly in and out.

Yusuke looked over to Inoue and sweat dropped. The black one was still chasing her around. After a few more seconds, the fairies glowed and turned back into her hair clips. She looked disheveled but smiled and walked over to Yusuke.

"Shun'ou told me that _Shun Shun Rikka's_ power depends on my emotions. _Santen Kesshun, _with Hinagiku, Baigon, and Lily, depends on my desire to protect, _Soten Kisshun, _with Shun'ou and Ayame, depends on my desire to heal, and _Koten Zashun…Koten Zashun_ depends on my desire to…to hurt people."

"I'm guessing that you don't really like people getting hurt do you," Yusuke said softly.

"No, not really," Orihime murmured.

Yusuke ran his fingers through his hair before sighing and said, "I need you to understand something. Listen to what I have to say, and to use it to define all of the decisions that you're going to make against Soul Society."

He raised his voice. "You should to listen too, Sado. You're not deep yet." He heard a grunt from Sado and a hesitant nod from Orihime.

"Now before I tell you this, this is for you two and you two only. Don't tell Kurosaki and don't tell anyone else that comes with us." They nodded.

"When we go into Soul Society, there will be an alert. This alert will tell them that Soul Society has been breeched by ryoka, people who enter Seireitai without permission or an escort from the Gotei Thirteen. Chances are that until we enter Seireitai the higher-ups will ignore us beyond sending some flunkies to deal with us."

He took a deep breath. "I'm going to need more information about the squads to know for sure what's going to happen but when we enter Seireitai, they will deem us as a real threat. When that happens, they start to send out the squads. Those squads will be human, or were human, and have human emotions just like anyone else. However they are a military organization."

He paused for a second, "What do you know about the military?"

"Nothing, Urameshi-san." Orihime looked slightly scared. She likely had a slight idea where this is going.

"Some," Sado said.

"Alright. What you need to know, is that to military organizations, any kind of act of violence against them will be met with extreme prejudice. That means that they will fight to kill or seriously injure. They won't try to save you if they don't have to. To them, we are invading. Not only are we attacking their headquarters, we're assaulting their homes. That is the ultimate act of aggression to any person. Most of them won't show mercy. Most of them won't be able to.

"What do you mean, 'won't be able to.' There is never any reason to kill someone if you can help it." Yusuke's eyes widened slightly. He was surprised. Inoue's voice was firm and loud, something that seemed at odds with her personality so far.

"The flunkies don't have much power, Inoue," Yusuke said. "They won't be able to stand up to Tsubaki, if you were only trying to disable them while harming them as much as possible. I can tell that by how much energy you have and what you told me about your powers." The ginger-haired girl blushed slightly.

"If you are confronted by a shinigami, I want you to hurt them. You don't have to like it, but you have to want it. If you don't want it then, it won't happen, and if it doesn't happen then, you might die, and I refuse to allow that to happen."

"I don't know if I can do that Urameshi-san," she said in a trembling voice.

Yusuke bent slightly so he could see into her eyes. "Then I want you to think about it this way. Every time you don't disable a shinigami – whether they're able to block Tsubaki or not, whether you can disable them or not – they will be able to harm you and your friends if you do not stop them."

She stared back into Yusuke's chocolate eyes, face going pale, eyes widening.

"Think about it," he said. "In a few days tell me what you've decided. For now I want you to meditate and concentrate on your power."

She nodded and sat down before closing her eyes. Her face refused to smooth over though and remained pale and troubled.  


* * *

"What do you think of them?"

Yusuke looked behind him at the black cat sitting on the rock and let out a sigh. Where should he start? Sado was slow. He was really slow. He was probably as fast as Kuwabara right after he started using his spirit sword. Probably a little faster though. Luckily he was strong. Sado could put some real strength into one of those blasts, enough to hurt him while he wasn't using his Reiki to defend himself.

Inoue was a different thing entirely. Her powers came from her emotions. The only way she could get more powerful was to go get more emotional. She was already very emotional. She didn't enjoy violence so her attacks weren't very strong. The only thing he could do was train her power and try to convince her that the best thing she could do to defend herself and her friends is to hurt others. Besides many people deserve to be hurt for what they do to others. Everything else was all on her.

"There's nothing I can do for Inoue. Everything about her power is hers. There is nothing I can do to make her stronger or better. It's going to be practice for her that's all she can do."

Yoruichi was quiet for a second before saying, "I don't think that Orihime understands that sometimes people deserve to be hurt, and that there are some people that need to be killed; people who enjoy hurting others." She looked over to him. "Maybe she needs to hear what those people can do."

Yusuke was silent. He wasn't in the mood to talk about his past.

Yoruichi sighed. Urahara told her to try to get Yusuke to open up. He had a lot of anger in his past, and while it may be his business, it would only hurt him in the long run if he starts grudges against the shinigami. "What about Sado?"

Yusuke snorted, "What can't I do. He's slow. He needs to do something about his speed if he's going to keep up with any of the shinigami."

"Most of the shinigami aren't really that fast, you know."

"Well they must not be that hard to beat then," Yusuke said.

"When I was fighting, if you weren't fast you were nothing. You can be as strong as Togouro but if he couldn't hit you, then he couldn't hurt you. And if you were slow then how could 'you beat him."

Yusuke looked at his bruised arm. "He packs one hell of a punch though."

"That brings up a question," Yoruichi said. "If you could stand up to one of Urahara's attack without a scratch, then how can you be hurt by one of Chad's attacks?"

"You know how everyone has some reiatsu protecting them?" When the cat nodded, he continued, "I can push my reiki to the outside of my body so that I'm shielded by it. It's a lot faster than actually using it to form a shield. It takes more energy and it isn't as strong as a regular shield. As I've got energy to spare. I wasn't using any kind of shield or spirit armor, just what's normally there."

He looked at Yoruichi seriously before saying quietly, "I have a lot of energy, Yoruichi. I would feel confident saying that I have more energy than any of the other S-class demon in Makai. I don't know how much energy hollow's have but I probably have more than them too. The amount of energy that I unconsciously put into my body, is stronger than the energy that most C-class demon's total energy."

Yoruichi looked at the pair not far from them, meditating. "That's…that's strong."

"Yes it is."

They were silent for a few minutes watching the two before there was a loud crash behind them. They turned around and saw Kurosaki trying to hit Urahara.

Every time Ichigo swings his sword, Sandal-hat either jumps out of the way or impedes his attacks.. This time, when he tried to hit Urahara, the annoying man blocked his blade, then pushed it downwards and jumped onto his face before running away laughing like a loon.

"What's wrong with you, you idiot!" He yelled, a red footprint on his face, "Why the hell did you jump on my face! What you think someone is gonna jump on my face when we attack Seireitai!"

"You should always be prepared Kurosaki-san," the other man said in a sing-song voice before prancing away. Urahara hung a left and ran straight to duo who was observing them and hid behind the guy.

"Don't hide you coward! You think this punk is gonna stop me from attacking you!"

"No," Yusuke said. "I'm the one who's going to finish your training."

Ichigo stopped, confused look on his face, "What?"

Urahara popped out from behind him, "It is true, Kurosaki-san. Urameshi Yusuke is going to be helping with you with you're reishi problem."

"I DON'T HAVE A REISHI PROBLEM. Wait, what do you mean reishi problem?"

"You have too much energy and not enough control," Yusuke said.

"Let's say that you had control over your power. That means that you'd have all the facts about it: its limits, weakness, strengths and all the consequences that come along with them. So far you've been going off half-cocked, having no idea how or why you're doing things you can do, simply armed with the knowledge that you can, but only after you actually do it. Sure it's fine for now while you stay in Karakura town, but if you go off to Soul Society, you'd need more that. Urahara told me what happened when you fought with Abarai Renji and Kuchiki Byakuya. You managed to tap into your unlocked potential and you managed to beat Abarai, a vice-captain.

He didn't mention that both of the said shinigamis had their power's sealed. "And the Captains are at least ten times stronger than the vice-captains. That's the truth."

"If you can't get at least some measure of control over your power, then you don't stand a chance against a seated officer, let alone one of the captains or vice captains."

Yusuke walked forward, stopping when the carrot-top was within his arms length. He uncrossed his arms and shoved his hands to his pockets, "Well are you ready?"

Ichigo was about to nod when he got distracted by Sandal-hat who was shaking his head and pointing at in front of him. He was making signs with his fingers denoting that the older boy was crazy and should not be listened to. Urameshi looked over his shoulder to glare at Urahara who suddenly started twiddling his thumbs and whistling.

The strawberry sighed and looked back at Yusuke before saying, "What do I have to do?"  


* * *

Ichigo found himself, standing on a highly elevated and extremely thin wooden pole. Around him was another set of poles with same height and thickness (or lack there of.) Below were a quite number of scattered, large, razor-sharp spikes. His goal was simple enough; he needs to reach the other side. Of course he had to manage it without stabbing himself on one of the spikes and ending up with a big hole in his chest. He was looking rather anxious, as he began to swivel slight as he jumped to the next pole. A few meters from him, were Yusuke and Urahara, sitting in a pair of lawn chairs eating popcorn as they watched him try to get across the gorge to the other cliff. That was the second time he almost fell, if wasn't able to catch himself, Gods.

"AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING UP HERE!"

"You're up there because you need to gain balance to improve your sword fighting skills. Also, using your reishi to correct your balance is a great way to increase your reserve and control," Yusuke shouted back at him.

"Oh right," the younger boy muttered under his breath.

He leaped across a bunch of other poles then finally bounding over final few feet at the end. "I made it!"

Ichigo climbed down the cliff. When finally reached the ground, he pulled out his sword with an insane, murderous expression on his face. "I'm going to kill you!!!"

"Put your butcher knife away," Yusuke said walking past him.

"It's not a butcher knife! It's a freaking zanpakutou! It's my freaking zanpakutou! So stop before I chop your head off!"

"You couldn't defeat me even if you suddenly improved at fighting then gained your bankai."

Ichigo dropped Zangetsu to the ground. "Bankai?"

Yusuke glared at Urahara "You didn't even tell him about bankai?"

Urahara looked sheepishly at Yusuke, "I didn't think he needed it. In fact, I'm wondering how you know about bankai."

Yusuke glared at him, "I have my sources," '_Koenma told me.'_

"I'm sure," '_Ah, I see.'_

Yusuke sighed, "Bankai is the second release of a zanpakutou. It is learned by materializing it in the real world, and proving to it that you're worthy to wield all of its power. Since your zanpakutou is part of your soul it also increases your own power by around ten times. It's a part of the reason the captains are so strong."

The shinigami substitute opened his mouth to talk but the former detective cut him off. "Achieving bankai won't let you overcome them. You can't even talk to your zanpakutou, let alone materialize it. Still, even if you could, you aren't strong enough to force it to submission, nor are you strong enough to handle the stress you'd go through when you release it.

The younger boy was quiet, before saying, "So you're saying that the only way for me to learn bankai, the only way to beat the captains, is to become stronger."

"Technically yes, but remember, it's still possible to beat a captain with just your shikai." Kurosaki looked like he was going to protest before Yusuke interrupted him again.

"Listen to me! If you can beat a captain before he or she can activates their bankai then there is nothing they can do about it. But to do that you have to be strong, fast and dirty. You have to beat them quick and hard so that they can't fight back. You understand?"

"Yeah.".

"Go spar with Sado. He's probably done with his meditation by now." The strawberry took his sword from the ground and walked over to Sado.

"You know that there's a way he could learn bankai in a few days," Urahara offered.

"Yes, I know, but he's still not strong enough to beat his sword. If he needs to, I'm sure Yoruichi can figure out a way to do it."

"Yes, she probably could."

Yusuke looked over the pair that had already started fighting each other.

Sado was using his right arm to block Ichigo's sword. Even if wasn't able to get through his defense, he was unable to attack back. But Sado had taken Urameshi's words to heart. He had to be faster. His opponent took a swing at his head, forcing him to raise his arm to prevent it from colliding to his head. Then he threw a punch with his left at other boy's face. He missed, but he did not give Ichigo another opportunity to attack .

From there Sado went on the offensive, jabbing with his left and right, even shooting out a kick once or twice. Once he had both of Ichigo's arms trapped, he threw a head butt leaving the carrot top in a daze. Then he jumped back and shot his right arm forward, stopping right before he hit Ichigo in the face.

"I win," Sado anounced.

"Good job, Sado. You got around your speed deficiency by stopping Kurosaki from moving. If he managed to get away then you would have been done for." Urameshi nodded in understanding.

"I have something to help you though," He walked up to Sado and gave him a pair of wrist and ankle cuffs. The taller boy grunted in surprise as his wrists and ankles snapped together. He was able to pull them apart but his arms and legs trembled at the effort.

"Hey Chad lets go again," Ichigo said with a grin. "There's no way I can lose now."

"Well Kurusaki, we don't want you to have it too easy," their trainer said with a grin. He took out another pair of cuffs and placed them on the said boy.

"These are spirit cuffs," Urameshi stated when the carrot – top's hands and ankles pulled together. He fell on the ground like he was hog tied.

"What the hell is this?!" He yelled. "How the hell am I supposed to fight if I can't move?!"

"The spirit cuffs will increase the resistance of you muscles and spirit power. If you ever need to release your cuffs, something which should only happen if you're in danger for your life, say 'ante up,' and the cuffs are released."

"And what the hell does that mean," Ichigo grunted, trying to separate his limbs. He heard another sigh as their tormentor expounding on the subject more.

"It means that you have to work harder to do anything."

"Great," Ichigo declared, finally being able to stand up. He grabbed his sword and leveled it at Urameshi.

"I'm tired of you and your 'I'm-holier-than-you' attitude. What makes you so special that you get to order us around? If you want to tell me what to do then you're going to have to prove that you're better than me."

Urahara began explaining that if Ichigo wanted to go to Soul Society then he has listen to Yusuke.

"No Urahara, the kids got guts. If he refuses to follow someone who doesn't prove that can lead. I can respect that," Yusuke said as he stopped Urahara from explaining.

He really could respect Kurosaki. Demons followed the strongest, and only the strongest. "If he wants me to prove that I'm stronger than him, it won't be a problem."

"Now here's what's gonna happen after all this. If I win, then you're going to do what I say, when I say it, cause it's going to save your life when you get to Seireitai. If you win, you get to fight Urahara for the next five days. How's that sound?"

"Sounds good, but right now, I just want a fight. You're going down," the teenager agreed and charged forward towards the guy.

Needless to say, Ichigo lost. He lay on his back breathing hard. His entire body felt bruised. His upper garment was mostly torn off. He saw a shadow above him and pushed himself up to look at its owner. When he got halfway up he groaned and feel back down on the ground.

"Are you done?" Yusuke asked. The boy should be. It was clear who won. Kurosaki's entire chest was horrendously black and blue due his hits. The teenager was barely able to follow his movements. This one had guts though, and a hell of a lot of determination. No fear was shown in those amber eyes not even at the prospect of getting hurt. More importantly, the kid obviously didn't think that Yusuke could kill him.

"Not. yet." Kurosaki said, gasping for breath between each word. Honestly who did this kid think he was? No one other than Kuwabara was able to stand up after a beating like that. And that was only after his loud mouthed friend gain a lot of edurance for being beaten like that for a few weeks.

Yusuke placed a foot on the younger boy's stomach and pressed down. His opponent groaned and coughed until he stopped putting pressure on his stomach.

"Alright, alright. I...I give up," as the strawberry let out a defeated sigh but Yusuke didn't let up.

"Say that you promise to follow my training."

"I promise to follow your training," Ichigo repeated. At least Urameshi wasn't rubbing it in or anything. Especially after he said he'd win.

"Good boy. Now Ichigo, say that Yusuke's the best and strongest, most handsome man ever and I'll never be able to beat him in anything," he said with an evil grin.

Sado, who watched the battle was silently smiling. He was really grateful that they met Urameshi. He looked over at Inoue, noticing the pain etched at her face. Then she gained a determined look on her face and whispered something in Jinta's ear. Jinta had an evil grin on his face. When she stood up with a smile, Jinta cackled madly and ran off. When she looked over at Sado, she had the most innocent expression on her face. She couldn't be planning something mean. It's just not like her.

Ichigo glared up at Yusuke and said flatly, "No."

Ichigo let out a girlish scream as Yusuke raised his leg, "Alright, alright. Yusuke's the best and strongest, most handsome man ever and I'll never be able to beat him in anything."

Yusuke smirked. "Thank you." He walked away from Yusuke toward the others before smiling at Inoue. She was standing with her hands behind her back. "Hey Inoue, I think Ichigo needs your tender loving services.

Orihime blushed but didn't move. As Urameshi-san started walking past her, she whipped around and slammed Jinta's bat into the back of Yusuke's head. He hit the ground with a loud slam. Everyone's jaw hung open at Inoue's action.

'_And I thought that she wasn't going to do anything,_' Sado thought.

'_It seems like Yusuke's speech got to her. At least a little bit,_' Yoruichi chuckled.

Jinta laughed his heart out and started rolling on the floor. "Oh that was priceless. Thank you, Hime. Thank you."

The girl blushed brighter saying softly, "You're welcome, Jinta-kun."

"What was that?" Ichigo said in a groggy voice.

"What the hell was that for?!" Yusuke asked. He seemed more annoyed than mad.

"You deserved it Urameshi-san. You were hurting Kurosaki-kun for no reason." Orihime's voice was strong. She glared slightly at Yusuke, daring him to say she was wrong.

Yusuke looked like he was going to argue before he chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "You're right. I deserved it."

He smiled and looked over to Ichigo who kept on trying to see what happened, before groaning and dropping on the ground again. _You might just save her yet kid. You might just do it._

**

* * *

Orihime and Chad are gonna be trained by Yusuke. Yay! Orihime grew a spine. Yay! Ichigo's also gonna be trained by Yusuke. Yay! Ichigo got really hurt. Not yay! **

**I know that I've been updating pretty fast. I don't know what the average is but this chapter is a little less than 5000 words and it took a few days after I actually knew what I was writing. After I really started writing the chapter it seemed like it took like no time to when I would be comfortable ending the chapter (not that it'll actually happen like that. I'm gonna try to write chapters at least the same length as the one before it, but they are going to vary. For example, the last chapter was harder to write than this one. **

**That addresses the length of the chapters. This'll address the quality. I realized that when I was reading the chapter to make sure it was good for updating, grammer and stuff, I thought of stuff that would make the chapter a lot better. I used to update whenever I was done cause I was excited and wanted to get it out there. I realized that was a bad idea. What's going to happen from now on is I'm going to work on a chapter. When I'm done with it I'm going to wait. The day after I'm done, I'm going to look over the chapter and add stuff that would make it better, then discuss it with my beta(if I get one). When I'm done (or we're done) I'd look over it again and edit it again. Each time I'm done with a section I'd edit my last chapter and say which part is done. I'm hoping that I'll only have to go over it twice to see how it is.**

**Next time: Yusuke gets the info he wants on the Gotei 13. Yusuke tells the others what he thinks the game plan should be. They journey to Soul Society**


	4. Chapter 3: We're Off

**A/N: I just wanna thank everyone who's reviewed. Most people who reviewed so far said that I was spelling the terms wrong so I hope that it's fixed this time.**

**I don't own Bleach or Yu Yu Hakusho**

Chapter 3: We're Off

Yusuke held a manila folder in his hand, watching as Ichigo fought with Urahara. "You drop your guard after a horizontal swing. Pick it up!" Ichigo grumbled but picked up his guard. The manila folder held information on the Gotei 13. Well all the information that Urahara managed to find.

Urahara said that he left one-hundred and ten years ago, so all the information came from anything he had been able to figure out from Rukia or his own extrapolation. '"_I left over a difference of opinion, Urameshi-san. It really isn't very interesting anyway." _ _Difference of opinion my ass. That man is __**strong**__, strong enough that I probably would've needed to transform if he decided to unleash his bankai.'_

Yusuke was telling the truth too. Urahara was a captain class shinigami, with enough power and strength to take on almost all of the Spirit Force in Reikai. According to Urahara, he was one of the strongest captain's compared to the captain's in charge today. When Yusuke asked where Urahara would rank, compared to the others, he said that he would probably be ranked as sixth or seventh in terms of strength. That was one theory that Yusuke wasn't looking forward to testing.

It was the tenth day of the training, and Urahara's information was late. Yusuke wanted the stupid thing days ago. How was he supposed to come up with a strategy if he had no idea what he was going to do? His ancestor might've trained him in the art of military combat and tactics and strategy, thankfully it wasn't a very _formal _study, but even he knew that if you wanted a plan you had to know about your enemy.

He looked over at Yoruichi, and saw the cat was continuing to train Sado and Orihime. The tall Mexican was forced to carry large weights on his back as he shot his attack into the featureless landscape around them. The spirit cuffs would increase his reiryoku and the amount of energy he could put into each attack. The weights would make him faster until he could move as fast as or faster than Kuwabara.

Orihime on the other hand, was working with her _Shun Shun Rikka_ becoming more and more familiar with her powers. It was really the only way she was going to get better. She mostly healed up Ichigo or Sado after they had gotten their ass handed to them by Yusuke or Urahara. A day or so ago she asked if he had to be so hard on them.

After that conversation he thought that he and she had a much better understanding.

"_Why do you have to hurt them so much?" _

_Yusuke turned around to see Orihime staring at him. She was looking beyond him, at Ichigo, who was trying to keep Urahara from slicing some more skin off. _

"_Oi, that really hurt!!"_

"_Please Kurosaki-san, that was simply a flesh wound. If you can't defend yourself from me," Urahara said, a smile on his face, "maybe you should go back to Urameshi-san for a refresher on defense."_

_Yusuke heard, Ichigo growl before hearing the clash of steel on steel as the two shinigami clashed. _

_He chuckled remembering how he taught Ichigo defense. He'd basically formed a rudimentary spirit sword and beat at the carrot top as hard and fast as he thought the kid could take it until he managed to block all of them. He did that every couple of days until Ichigo could keep up. The kid didn't know how he was doing it, and that really wasn't important, as long as he did._

"_How do you learn Orihime-san?" Yusuke said. _

_Orihime blinked. It was the first time that Yusuke had said her name. Her given name. "I would appreciate it if you called me Inoue-san, Urameshi-san," she said stiffly._

"_Why?" he said with a laugh, "Because I'm beating up your friends?" She stared at him. "Yeah, yeah. That's actually a good reason." Yusuke sighed and walked next to her facing Ichigo. "I want you to watch him, not that you haven't been watching him for the entire time," he said teasingly. She blushed and Yusuke chuckled. "How do you think he's doing against Urahara?"_

"_Why do you want my opinion?" She asked._

"_Because I want you to understand what we're doing." She looked at him confused. "Would think that Ichigo is instinctual? Is he ruled by his head or his gut?" _

_Orihime thought for a second before saying slowly, "Neither. Kurosaki-san does things through his heart."_

_Yusuke smiled and said, "A good answer. That means that his ideals are through his emotions, but he fights with his gut." Orihime looked like she was about to protest but Yusuke over rode her. "He fights with his gut," Yusuke said louder. She nodded, subdued. "That means that whenever he's faced with a challenge, a real challenge, he doesn't think when he does something to win, he just does it."_

"_I…don't understand, Urameshi-san."_

"_You see how Kurosaki just pushed Urahara back." He had. Ichigo had just slammed Urahara with a sideways hit from Zangetsu, one that pushed Urahara through the dirt until he stood ten feet away. "How do you think he did that, and do you think he could've done that when he first came here?"_

_She looked at Yusuke, an unreadable expression on her face, before saying, "No. To both questions."_

"_He pushed his reiki, his raw spirit energy, into he arms which increased his strength. He did this without any instruction from me or Urahara," Yusuke said, a faraway expression on his face. "He's the kind of fighter that comes around every few hundred years. An instinctual fighter, with high spirit energy, who uses techniques like that without any instruction." He looked at Orihime, "Do you have any idea how many people would be able to do that? It's not really something that's very advanced, actually it's one of the first things that people learn how to do. But…he doesn't even know how to manipulate his reiryoku." _

"_He needs the strength so he figures out how to do it, even if he doesn't know what he did," Yusuke laughed. _

"_Urameshi-san, if it isn't a hard technique, then why don't you just teach Kurosaki-san how to do it." Yusuke just stared. The brunette girl blushed. "Well Kurosaki-san is very smart. He's near the top of his class and…" She stopped talking after Yusuke started laughing._

"_He's worse at controlling his energy than any other person I've ever seen. While actually controlling your reiryoku to make yourself stronger and faster isn't that hard, for him, getting himself to the level of control he needs in order do it…we just don't have that kind of time_

_They watched the fight for a little while before Yusuke sighed and started walking away. "My turn," he said. "And this time he doesn't get a weapon. Let's see if his gut can get him outta this one."_

"_Urameshi-san?" Yusuke stopped walking at Inoue's words. "Thank you for training Kurosaki-san. I'll make sure that he knows what you're doing for him."_

_Yusuke stopped staring at her in surprise. She was determined. He knew that Kurosaki hated him. Hell he wasn't even as bad as Genkai was when she was training him, and he knew that he hated the old bat until he realized what she was doing for him. That training paid off._

"_Inoue-san…thank you but…it's going to have to be something he finds out for himself." Yusuke smiled. "If he's as smart as you said he was, he'll figure it out eventually." _

"_Urameshi-san?"_

_He sighed. "Yes Inoue-san?" he said, slightly exasperated, annoyance filling his eyes._

"_I don't mind if you call me Orihime-san."_

_He smiled, "Thank you Inoue-san. I'm sure it will make Kurosaki very jealous." Orihime jerked and blushed crimson._

_He laughed, before blurring out of Orihime's vision as he increased his speed wiith his reiki._

_He appeared in front of Kurosaki, grabbing the blade of Zangetsu and taking it out of his hands and stabbing it into the ground, before explaining what Ichigo had to do next._

He thought that it was good that Inoue-san knew why he and Urahara were doing what they were doing. Even if she still didn't like that he was doing it.

Looked over to the girl in question and saw her watching Ichigo and Sado training. The two of them were climbing one of the large rock pillars, in a race to see who could get to the top. The race had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that the loser had to do two-hundred push-ups and sits. Absolutely nothing. In addition to their spirit cuffs, the pair was wearing ball and chain cuffs around their ankles, and they weren't allowed to use their legs to help them climb.

"This seems a little extreme Urameshi-san," Urahara said. "I know they need to be stronger, but I'm sure that they would've survived with more traditional training."

"Six months before the Dark Tournament, a demon named Togouro came to me and brought a building down around my ears," Yusuke said. "I had fought this guy a couple months earlier, and it was the hardest fight I'd ever fought up to that time. After that fight I thought he was dead. After Togouro brought that building down, he told me that he had only used thirty percent of his strength against me." He looked at Urahara, "Thirty percent Urahara. That meant that not only meant he was insanely strong, but he was also so good at controlling his reiryoku that he could divide it up into percents. He was a high B-class demon, and I was the same level as a mid to high C-class. There's no way I'd be able to win.

"When I was training, for the Dark Tournament, I did this three times a week, the cliff was bigger, the weights heavier, and my teacher decided to use me as a punching bag as I climbed up. I trained for six months Urahara, and the training was a lot tougher than anything these boys are doing. When the tournament started I was probably a border B-class maybe slightly higher."

"Bordering on A-class?" Urahara asked curiously.

Yusuke snorted, "Bordering on C-class Urahara." The man looked shocked. Yusuke didn't blame him. It didn't sound like a big jump. "But don't worry, that's a huge jump in the range that Reikai uses. Think of it like getting your Zanpakutou a day after you get to Soul Society, and then learning its name, a few days after that." Urahara nodded in understanding. "But remember, I wasn't ready to fight Togouro when I first entered the tournament, and they won't be ready to fight the Captain's when they first enter Soul Society either. But they'll be able to take down anything else that gets in their way." Yusuke looked hard as he gazed Urahara. "Count on it."

"Thank you, Urameshi-san," Urahara said. "I had no idea that these training techniques could be so effective. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Ichigo needs to talk to his sword," Yusuke said. "I know you probably want him to figure it out on his own, and I could probably give him a push in the right direction, but it's not something I want to do. You're the former shinigami and he trusts you more than he trusts me right now."

"Nonsense," Urahara said, fan out blocking his smile. "I'm sure that Kurosaki has only the utmost respect and care for you. After all you took time out of your busy schedule to come and help us."

Yusuke snorted again, "I run a dojo in Tokyo for kids who can't stand up to bullies. My students were happy to see it in the hands of Hiei and Kurama. At least they will until Hiei starts teaching."

Urahara let out a belly filled laugh. One that carried up to Ichigo and Chad as they struggled to reach the top.

"What…do you think…their talking…about?" Chad asked, in-between pulling himself up.

"Probably…more ways…to…torture…us," Ichigo replied. Chad merely grunted in reply.

Just as Ichigo was about to reach for another hand-hold, Yusuke called up to them, "Ichigo, Sado."

Ichigo flailed his arm around, trying to keep from falling. "Hey, dumbass! Are you trying to make me fall!" Chad simply turned his head.

"Come down here. It's time to plan our entry." Ichigo let out a sigh of happiness, glad that they were finally doing something that could help. And glad he could finally take a break.

"Ichigo."

"Yeah, Chad?"

"How are we supposed to get down from here?"

Ichigo looked down at the ground, "I don't know buddy, I don't know."

They all sat in a circle around Yusuke, waiting to see what was in that big folder of his. "We're almost ready to enter Soul Society. What we need, is to figure out what our enemy can do, and what we can do against them." He stared at all of them, "Is there anything I need to know before I start explaining the plan."

They looked at each other hesitantly. Urahara was the first one to speak, "There might be another person coming with us. His name is Ishida Uryu and he's a Quincy. Is there anything else you need to know?" He hoped that Yusuke knew what that meant. Ishida-san's history wasn't one that Ishida should reveal himself.

"Alright. Just makes everything better," Yusuke cleared his throat and took the papers out of his folder. He passed a drawing around before he started reading from his papers.

"As far as we know there are four different parts of the Gotei 13. There are the Kido corps, who specialize in kido, or "demon arts." No one knew why Yusuke put quotes around the word demon arts. "The _onmitsukidō,_ their stealth forces, which are tasked with surveillance, covert operations, and imprisoning potentially problematic Soul Reapers. The stealth forces seem to be under the second division captain. There's Central Forty-Six, which make most of the decisions concerning Soul Society as a whole. They make laws, judgments on trials, decide when to go to war, etc. And then there's the Shinigami.

"I thought that all people in Seireitai were shinigami?" Ichigo asked.

"Kind of but not really Kurosaki-kun." Urahara said. Ichigo opened his mouth but Urahara hit him in the dead with his cane. "Continue please, Urameshi-san.

The picture was of an old man with scars on his forehead, a large white beard going down to his waist. He was wearing a black kimono like Ichigo's but had a white haori over it.

"That," Yusuke said pointing at the picture, "is Yamamoto-Genryūsai Shigekuni. He is the captain commander of the shinigami forces and also the captain of the first squad. He's like the general of Soul Society. We only know what his shikai is, _Ryūjin Jakka. _It's a sword made out of fire and is the most powerful fire-based Zanpakutou in the Gotei Thirteen.

"Second division's captain is named Soifon. She's got two braids with crescent moons hanging off them, and she's apparently a tiny woman. Her Zanpakutou is in a hanging off her shoulders. We don't really have any information on her shikai or bankai. Her lieutenant is a fat man named Ōmaeda Marechiyo. It's rumored that he became lieutenant through his family so I don't think we have much to fear from him.

"Third Squad is lead by Ichimaru Gin. He's got pale hair, almost white, and he's always wearing a snake like grin on his face. He was considered a prodigy when he first came to Seireitei and was stranger than most Captains. When asked all, Urahara would say is, "He is someone that bears watching. He's sneaky too, so don't let you're guard down." His Zanpakutou is in a s-shape and he keeps it at his waist, his vice-captain is Izuru Kira.

They continued on, talking about each captain: Unohana Retsu, who was in charge of the fourth division who was in charge of healing and resupply for the Gotei 13, - if we want to make this a war instead of a rescue, we should attack here first." – and her lieutenant named Isane Kotetsu.

Aizen Souske, with a Zanpakutou that could create illusions, and his lieutenant Hinamori who was skilled in Kido. Urahara had some things to say about _that_ man, just only to Yusuke, "I don't trust the bastard. He is also the most dangerous man in Soul Society. If there's anyone you should use your full strength on, it's him." They were the messengers of the Gotei 13.

Sixth Division was headed by Kuchiki Byakuya and his lieutenant Abarai Renji. At the mention of the two, Ichigo gritted his teeth and his reiatsu skyrocketed. "Calm down, Kurosaki," the Tantei said. Kurosaki glared at him and got thumped on the head by Urahara.

"You have to control yourself, Kurosaki-san."

They moved on to the Seventh Squad, where they discussed Komamura Sajin who wore a straw helmet over his head and his lieutenant Tetsuzaemon Iba.

They had more information about Eighth Squad. It's headed by Kyoraku Shunsui. Kyoraku wore a pink robe over his _haori_ and wore a straw hat on his head. They actually knew what his shikai was: Katen Kyōkotsu, which was actually two swords, one of the few. His Lieutenant was Nanao Ise who didn't seem to have a Zanpakutou. "That doesn't mean she isn't dangerous, so don't let your guard down."

Then there was Tosen Kaname, the blind captain in charge of the Ninth Division. He was blind and Urahara considered him one of the other most dangerous men in Soul Society. His lieutenant Hisagi Shuhei, who had a 69 tattooed on his face.

Hitsugaya Toshiro, and very short white haired and his lieutenant, who was ridiculously well endowed and had long wavy hair, Matsumoto Rangiku was in charge of the Tenth Division, and was in charge of internal affairs. "If there's someone that is going to think something is wrong with Soul Society, and there is, it's them. If this goes to hell, find them and try to get them to connect the dots. Talk about all the strange things that are happening there recently."

Orihime raised her hand and asked, "What kind of strange things?"

"Rukia getting executed instead of imprisoned, a captain and vice captain getting sent to capture an unseated shinigami, things like that."

Kenpachi Zaraki was a very tall man with very large spikes in his hair. His sword was long and jagged, and was the only captain without a shikai or bankai. He was also the only captain who killed his predecessor to get to office. His lieutenant was Kusajishi Yachiru and was the youngest lieutenant in the Gotei 13. The eleventh division was infamous for their love of fighting and they were very…quirky.

The Twelfth Squad, was headed by Kurotsuchi Mayuri. Most people thought he was a strange man, who had gold shapes coming out of the side of his head, and usually wore white and black face paint. He is obsessed with science and will go to almost any end to study whatever it was that caught his interest. He was a very dangerous man, willing to do anything for his studies.

The Thirteenth Squad was led by Ukitake Jushiro who was often times ill. He left the running of the thirteenth to his two third seats as he didn't have a lieutenant. His shikai is Sōgyo no Kotowari, and it's two swords connected by a chain.

"The next few days we're going to take it easy with your training-"

"Thank you God" Ichigo yelled, on knees, repeatedly bowing to Yusuke. Sado looked like a man who saw water in the desert.

"-we're going to cut down your training," Yusuke said in a louder voice. "So you aren't overly tired before we leave. Now-

"What about actually getting inside Seireitai?" Ichigo asked, eyes bright. "And getting to where Rukia is?"

"I don't want to rush things Ichigo. We'll talk about actually getting in later."

"What do you mean 'later'!" Ichigo yelled. "How am I supposed to sit here doing this stuff when we have no idea how to get Rukia."

"Six years ago I was once on a retrieval mission that was actually very similar to this one. I had to rescue a young woman who was being held hostage by a very evil man. Ichigo, I'm pretty sure you know what I'd do if I had to get something from someone back. What would I do?"

Ichigo thought for a second confused, "You'd probably just bust down the front door and charge in."

"And that's exactly what we're going to do." Ichigo didn't look satisfied but stayed quiet.

"We start balance training. Ichigo, I want you to balance on the point of Zangetsu, Chad you're on your fingertips. If you can't stay up there for three hours then we go back to your original balance training." Chad and Ichigo shuddered. The first time they practiced balancing, they had to fight each other on spikes while Yusuke threw stuff at them.

"I thought you said that we'd be taking it easy?" Ichigo asked.

"Yeah, 'taking it easy' or 'cut down on your training' means you get to sleep more, and rest more in between each exercise. Handstands aren't exercise. A good nights sleep and you'll be fine, now get to work."

It was the night after they had their talk about the different captains, and Ichigo was lying in his room on his bed. Yusuke let him go back home when Urahara started preparing the Senkai gate. "_If you're going to rest then there's no reason to stay here Kurosaki. Go home and get some rest."_

How was he supposed to get any rest. When he first decided to go save Rukia, it didn't seem like it would be that hard. Sure, Byakuya was really strong, but there couldn't've been that many strong people in Seireitai could there? After all Renji was easy enough to beat, and if he faced him now, chances are he'd be able to beat the red haired shinigami into a bloody pulp and then maybe fight Byakuya to a stand still.

Not any more.

Not only was Byakuya one of _thirteen_ people who could probably beat him, he wasn't even the strongest. There were at least three people stronger than him, and Byakuya hadn't even released his shikai. How was he supposed to beat them. '_I kinda think it would've been better if Urameshi didn't tell me what we were up against.' _After all, that bastard wasn't going to help. It seemed like he was going to be doing this on his own.

"Ohayo, Kurosaki-kun."

Ichigo sat up with a yelp. Standing at his window was, Urahara Kisuke. He had a cheshire grin on his face and seemed to be waiting for Ichigo to speak first.

"What the hell are you doing here! I thought you were supposed to be preparing the gate?" he shouted-whispered. "Stop being weird and get in here."

"Thank you, Kurosaki-kun. It was quite cold outside. Tessai is doing the beginning parts of the gate," Urahara hopped into the room and walked inside before studying Ichigo's room.

"What do you want?"

"I wanted to make sure you were ok after your training. After all Urameshi-san is a harsh task master."

"That's the understatement of the world." His brown eyes met Urahara's with a glare. "He acts like he's so good at fighting. He's only like, what, twenty or something. What did he do that makes him so special? Why is he here? Why do you trust him so much?"

Urahara was quiet for a few moments before sitting down next to Ichigo's bed with a sigh. He took his hat from his head and studied it as he talked.

"I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you this. Urameshi-san has had a very hard life. He was a natural at fighting, on human levels at least. Every shred of power he has now, he's worked for; almost every shred of strength, so when you have this massive force behind you that you didn't earn, he's going to be training you harder because of it. Urameshi-san is one of the strongest people in the known world, and he is the best person to have behind you in this mission Kurosaki-san. If he doesn't make it back, none of you will."

The former shinigami put his hat back on his head and stood up, "So when I tell you that it's in your best interests to listen to him, I expect you to listen. After all, he's your elder. That should count for something, yes?"

"That doesn't explain the why he acts like he's so good at fighting. I'm sure there has to be someone who's better than him," Ichigo shot back.

"He _is _better than everyone else at fighting Kurosaki-san." Ichigo snorted and Urahara went on. "Do you remember several years ago there was talk about a boy of fourteen in Tokyo who was taking down local gangs who picked fights with him?"

"Yeah but what does that..." His eyes widened, "Are you saying that this is the same guy?" Ichigo asked incredulously."

"Yes, and that was six years ago, before he discovered his powers. He's only grown stronger since then."

Ichigo looked at Urahara, his face pensive. "I still don't know if I should trust him. I get that he can help us but I just don't know."

Urahara pulled his sword from his cane and looked at it. Ichigo grew panicked and put his back to the wall hands shooting out to Urahara, "Come now, we can't fight here. I mean, you're saving your energy for the senkai gate and I'm not a shinigami right now, and you said that I could rest up and-" he let out a squeak as he curled himself as best he could while still standing on one leg.

When no attack came, Ichigo opened one eye and looked at Urahara, who was just sweat dropped. _'Maybe all this is getting to him...'_ Urahara thought.

"Anyway," Urahara said drawing the word out, "Whenever I wasn't sure of something, Benihime always had the answer." His sword gleamed in the moonlight. "You know your swords name, ask it."

Ichigo stared at the sword, his face shining from the reflection of light, while on the rooftop of a city and man on a sword smiled.

A beam of blue light flashed as it connected with Ichigo's sword and Yusuke smirked as the air around him and the orange haired boy sparked and snapped with their energy as they struggled against each other.

"Not bad, Kurosaki," Yusuke said, his voice excited but he wasn't breathing hard in the least, despite fighting Ichigo for the past "But you're still a pathetic pansy." Ichigo let out a grunt and tried to push Yusuke back, but only succeeded in pushing himself through the dirt, unable to move his opponent.

Yusuke grinned and carefully manipulated his energy. He couldn't pull on anymore of his energy. But that didn't mean that he couldn't use every piece of his control and cheap tricks to beat him. Ichigo wouldn't know what hit him.

The blue blade suddenly bent inward as Ichigo began to overcome the Tantei's strength. Ichigo let out a grin of his own as his blade bent closer and closer to Yusuke. His sword was a few inches from Yusuke when his grin dropped off his face and Ichigo could tell that he knew something was wrong right now.

One. While Ichigo could almost push through the Rei Ken, Yusuke didn't seem worried about it at all. Two. Yusuke wasn't doing anything to protect himself from the gigantic sword which was now inches from his face. Three. Ichigo could feel something wrap around his arms and legs.

The orange haired shinigami's arms and legs snapped together as Yusuke's _reiki_ forced Ichigo to stop moving. With his sword at his side and no way to move, Ichigo was helpless against Yusuke. That didn't stop him from trying though.

Ichigo struggled to move his arms and legs, muscles flexing as they tried to break the _reiki _bonds. Unfortunately, Ichigo was unable to break through Yusuke's technique and therefore couldn't stop the wave of force that was currently charging in Yusuke's fist as he brought it to bear several feet away from the young man's chest.

Yusuke released his energy and the air between them rippled as his energy moved through it to Ichigo. As the attacked reached Ichigo, his bonds dissolved and he grinned in triumph as he swung his sword at the former detective. That grin turned into terror as he began to move away from Yusuke at an alarming pace. It was slow at first, as if the wave was fighting against something, before it picked up speed and slammed Ichigo into a spire of rock. He was held there for a few seconds as the rock crunched under the force of Yusuke's attack, before the wave disappeared and Ichigo fell to the ground, covered in bruises.

"Get up."

If Ichigo heard him, he didn't do anything to show it. He didn't move a muscle.

It was too much. The training, the fights, the bruises, the cuts, he couldn't handle it anymore. That last shockwave was the final straw. If he couldn't even keep himself planted in the face of that then he didn't even stand a chance. It was the first thing Yusuke had taught him for Kami's sake. _When someone attacks you with pure reiatsu or reiki, you push your reiryoku in the direction of the attack to neutralize it._

Yusuke was starting to become annoyed. It was one shock wave, if Kurosaki couldn't even take that then he didn't have a chance. "Come on, Kurosaki. If you don't get up there's no way you're going to go to Soul Society."

Ichigo still didn't move at all. He seemed dead to the world.

"Where's your strength boy?" Yusuke stared down at Ichigo. The kid was on his stomach, unable to even turn over. "Urahara told me that you were strong. He told me that without that shield of his, he woulda lost an arm. I don't see any of that strength here." He pushed Ichigo over with his foot. "That means at least one of three things."

"Oh dear." Urahara said quietly, as he watched Yusuke man handle Ichigo. Tessai looked up from his work at the gate and stared at the two fighting. Or more precisely, one was kicking the crap out of the other.

"Aren't you going to do something, Urahara-dono?" Tessai asked. It wasn't like Urahara to just leave something like this alone.

"No," Urahara said at last. "This is something Ichigo has to figure out and deal with on his own. He's brought this on himself."

Tessai looked at Urahara, his face unreadable. He seemed to be wrestling with a decision before finally saying, "Hai."

Yusuke picked Ichigo up by the scruff of his uniform and threw him back at the rock. The boy bounced off and was seized by the former detective as he slammed Ichigo back against the spire. This wasn't Yusuke the trainer. The Yusuke who helped Orihime and Sado figure out what they were doing with their powers. The Yusuke who was going to help them save Rukia from Seireitei.

This was the Mazoku. The half demon. The Toushin. The War God. This was the being who could, at his whim, form an army and take over the entirety of Makai. The more demonic personality who was as unforgiving and contemptuous of weakness as a Russian winter.

"It means that Urahara is a weak son of a bitch," Yusuke slammed a fist into Ichigo's gut, and the shinigami fell over in Yusuke's arms with a grunt. "Which I know isn't true. It could also mean that _you _are a weak, but lucky, idiotic piece of grime." Yusuke picked him up and threw him over a shoulder. By now Ichigo was looking like a piece of meat for the butcher as he rolled and skidded through the ground.

He hit against someone's leg and looked up to see Yusuke looking down on him. His face was dark with contempt and disgust as he stared at Ichigo. "There's a problem with that thought too, since from what I've been able to see, you're actually quite strong. You could probably take down an average captain, if they didn't release their zanpakutou, with only some difficulty. So that could only mean one thing." The Rei Ken formed in Yusuke's hand as he squatted down by Ichigo's head.

"You aren't taking this seriously." Ichigo opened his eyes and stared at him, but still didn't say anything. "To you this is just training. It's a waste of time. But you already think that you're strong enough. After all, I've been training you for a while now. You've gotten a lot stronger, and could probably take down Renji by now. If you could unlock that power. That power's your blade. The problem is, you refuse to ask it for help; you never really had to. After all, I've already kicked your ass six ways from sunday, and you can barely hit me." His voice turned sarcastic. "That means that you can fight me without help."

"You're worthless, boy. Even if you could beat every captain at once I wouldn't let you through that gate. And it's all because you couldn't get up when the going got tough. So how about I give you some incentive." He stood up and held his blue sword point down over Ichigo's chest.

"If you get up now and can land a hit on me, you win. If you get up and fight back until I beat you unconscious, or we fight until I can't anymore, you win. See you don't even have to kick my ass.

Or if you don't get up and fight at all, I'm gonna run you through."

Ichigo stared up at the former detective, terrified of the man for the first time. Was he insane?

Yusuke's lip curled and said, "So be it," and drove the sword toward the orange haired punk below it.

The blade of blue energy started its descent toward the shinigami. When it was a fourth of the way down the butcher knife still clutched in Ichigo's hand began to glow. When it was half way down, Ichigo's face grew serious and his eyes changed to a deep blue as they glowed with power. When it was almost to Ichigo's chest, he _blurred, _and Zangetsu was between Yusuke and Ichigo. It turned forcing the blade aside as Ichigo _blurred_ again taking a swipe at Yusuke from behind.

Yusuke ducked and returned with a slice of his own, only to be met with Zangetsu, as they pushed against each other once again. This time though. Ichigo was confident and his sword glowed with power again.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" The crescent wave of blue energy cut through Yusuke's Rei Ken, and the detective jumped back, pushing reiki through his skin to form a shield against the attack. The attack bent around the sphere shaped shield, before detonating in a flash of light. Everyone was blinded for seconds, eyes blinking in an attempt to get rid of the spots dancing across their vision.

When his vision finally cleared, Ichigo gaped at the scene before him.

Yusuke was fine. Absolutely fine. Sure he was inside a giant blue ball, and he actually seemed to be breathing hard, but he was fine. Ichigo put everything he had into that attack. Well, everything he could gather at any rate.

He sensed rather than saw the man at his shoulder. _'He's still strong, but our attack is able to hurt him. How do we know that.'_

_'He formed a shield, rather that blocking it on his own,' _Ichigo told his sword.

_'Correct,' _and Ichigo felt Zangetsu's approval. _'Now we have the problem of piercing his shield. We can do it. Do you know what to do?'_ There was a strange tone to the mental voice.

Ichigo was silent for a moment focusing on his opponent. He wasn't moving. He seemed to be asking a question. _'Prove you can do this. Prove that you're worthy to survive. Prove you're not some will-less weakling.'_

_'No I don't...show me.' _Ichigo felt Zangetsu smile again. _'Push your energy into me as if you were going to attack but don't release it. Let's see if he can stand up to _Getsuga Yaiba_'_

Ichigo charged the Mazoku, blade glowing blue as his reishi filled the sword. He flew across the wasteland, Zangetsu held to the side and back, ready to thrust forward. As Ichigo reached Yusuke's shield the _Getsuga Yaiba _went through the bubble of energy like a sword through rice paper. Yusuke jumped back, surprised.

His hand shot up in a gun shape and he shouted, "_Reigan_!" A burst of _reishi_ flowed down his arm, into his fingertip, before flowing out in a burst the size of an egg toward Ichigo. The attack hit the flat of Ichigo's sword and pushed him through the dust.

Both Ichigo and Zangetsu were surprised at the strength of the attack, considering it's size, and they were lucky that Yusuke retaliated so quickly. With Ichigo still fueling_ Getsuga Yaiba, _he was able to hold back the bullet until it dissipated. Ichigo released the stream of _reishi _that flowed into Zangetsu and started panting as he sagged on his feet, but still staring at Yusuke waiting for him to attack.

Yusuke just sighed and crossed his hands behind his head, "You did it Kurosaki. I'm actually kinda surprised. Didn't think you had it in ya." Yusuke turned and walked towards the stairs leading back up to the real world.

"Wait, what?" Ichigo stared in disbelief. "You're just gonna walk away."

Yusuke turned and stared at the carrot top. "Well yeah. That last _Reigan _took the rest of my energy. Now, I don't know about you but I'm going to catch some z's and grab some grub." He turned back to the exit and continued walking. "Oh and if you were wondering, Orihime is waiting for you upstairs. Said something about taking care of you."

Ichigo blushed crimson and started mumbling when he heard Yusuke cackle and walk up the stairs.

Ichigo stood outside in the street waiting for Keigo to show up. Ichigo sighed,_ 'Why do we have to meet during the day. After all, the fireworks aren't until tonight.'_ Ichigo glanced left at the man next to him. '_And why did Urahara, ask me to take Urameshi. He probably doesn't wanna hang out with a bunch of high school kids anyway.'_

"You don't have to be here you know." Ichigo said.

"Hmm?" Yusuke asked looking at him. The man had been leaning against a telephone pole glancing up and down the street.

"You don't have to hang out with us." Ichigo clarified. "I mean, it's not like you have to be here. I'm sure you can find a fight somewhere around here."

Yusuke looked at Ichigo for a few seconds before he burst out laughing. "Are you kidding? Of course it'd be easy to find a fight! It's probably one of the easiest things in the world. But even if I love to fight that doesn't mean it's all I do." He looked down his nose at Ichigo. "I do have other interests you know."

Ichigo couldn't believe his ears. "Oh really? Like what?"

"Languages," Yusuke said promptly.

"Languages?" Ichigo said. He wasn't expecting this. Before he could ask anything else though, a young man came hurtling down the street yelling. As he reached Ichigo and Yusuke, Ichigo lift his foot and watched as he ran straight into it.

There were tears leaking down his face and Ichigo could just barely hear him say, "You're so cold."

"Thank you," Ichigo mumbled, glaring at the kid on his shoe. He glanced at Yusuke and saw the man hanging onto the telephone pole, fist stuffed in his mouth to stifle his laughter. "Keigo, this is Urameshi Yusuke. Urameshi-san, this is Asano Keigo, a classmate of mine." The Tantei took his fist out of his mouth and wiped it on a tissue before holding his hand out to Keigo, who was just pulling himself off Ichigo's shoe.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Asano-san," Yusuke said.

Keigo looked at Yusuke suspiciously, before jumping behind Ichigo and whispering in his ear. "Who is this guy? And why are you hanging out with him?"

Ichigo grabbed Keigo's face and pushed him away from his ear. "He's a friend of my father's Keigo. Dad asked me to show him around town. He's going to the fireworks with us."

It was then that Kojima Mizuiro showed up, skin red but smiling. "I'm back too Keigo. Were you lonely playing by yourself."

Keigo turned red and slapped him across the face, "Shut up, you foreigner."

Mizuiro grabbed his face complaining about how his face hurt.

"Hey Keigo, what time is it?" Ichigo asked.

The excitable boy looked up from his attack on his friend, "3:10"

Ichigo scowled before saying, "Then why are we meeting now? The fireworks don't start until tonight."

Keigo's eyes bulged and he started ranting. "What did you say! Do you know how ling I've looked forward to this day! I was so excited, I didn't go to sleep last night! Actually I wanted to meet at 11PM in the morning." Ichigo said that that's not morning but he was ignored. "Just thinking about the time you're not here, I get goosebumps..."

"I'd keep an eye on your friend if I was you." Ichigo looked behind him toward Yusuke.

"Why's that?"

"Well, he seems very insane for one. Personally, I think he has a very creepy obsession of you."

They heard a yelp and looked back to Keigo to see Tatsuki, putting her foot back on the ground. "Hi Ichigo. Who's this?" She asked looking at Yusuke.

"This is Urameshi Yusuke. He's a friend of my father's."

"Nice to meet you Urameshi-san. I'm Arisawa Tatsuki," she said holding out her left hand.

"It's nice to meet you too, Arisawa-san," Yusuke said.

"Tatsuki, what happened to your arm?" Ichigo asked.

As they walked toward the site of the fireworks, they found out that Tatsuki had gotten runner up in a high school martial arts tournament against an ape of a woman while her arm was broken.

"Impressive," Yusuke said, "you could probably beat most of my old opponents."

"I didn't know you were a martial artist, Urameshi-san," Orihime said.

"I'm not Inoue-san," he said, "However, I do have a lot of fighting experience."

"Who did you fight?" Tatsuki asked. "And where? I could always use a challenge."

"Street thugs, about six or seven years ago." Yusuke said. "In Tokyo, that's where I grew up."

"Were you yakuza?" Keigo asked, eyes wide.

"Don't be ridiculous Asano-san," Mizuiro said. "He doesn't seem that old. He must've been fourteen then."

"Mizuiro! You wound me with your unfamiliarity!" Keigo said dropping to his knees, his hands clutched to his heart.

"That's nice, Asano-san."

"I think we're here," the martial artist said.

"No, the fireworks are near the gymnasium. I think we'd be too far away to see anything from here." Mizuiro said.

"I'd rather stay here," Tatsuki said sitting down. "There are too many stories and people closer there."

Keigo went on another rant, talking about girls and the festival and how he wants to see Inoue-san in a kimono. Tatsuki looked like she was about to attack Keigo when Isshin and Karin and Yuzu ran and tackled Ichigo. They tumbled head over heels down the slope and hit the bottom with a crash. After they hit the ground Yuzu and Karin were on Ichigo's chest and trying to get him to eat some chocolate covered banana's. When he said no, Yuzu almost started crying asking if her chocolate didn't taste good.

"Why are you so loud?" Ichigo asked. "Are you drunk?"

"She is drunk," Isshin said.

"Are you serious?!" Ichigo yelled.

Then Isshin went onto some story about how some old man at a festival at a festival put some wine into the punch. "But that doesn't matter! We saved a seat by the bank for the fireworks at seven in the morning!"

"We all went there!" Karin and Yuzu shouted.

Keigo and Mizuiro both ran over to them and join the other Kurosaki's in a group hug.

"Originally, I wanted to rent a boat and watch from there," Isshin said," but the police would catch us, hahaha."

"Why don't you just get caught and go to jail," Ichigo muttered. He heard a snort behind him and saw Yusuke stuff his hand back in his mouth.

All of a sudden Isshin yelled at Orihime and Tatsuki, "Hey cute girls over there! Wanna come?!" Ichigo put his head in his hands as he heard Yusuke's laughter muffled by his hand.

"We'll go later," Tatsuki said.

"Lets go kids!" Then all of them ran off towards the river.

Ichigo turned to Tatsuki and said, "I'm sorry for bothering you all the time Tatsuki. It's ok if you don't want to come."

She waved him away and said, "I'll come soon for sure. Hurry up and go."

"Alright," Ichigo said. "He grabbed Yusuke and pulled him along, "Come on, lunatic," and the two walked off, swapping insults.

"It was nice to meet you Arisawa-san, Inoue-san."

Orihime sat next to Ichigo watching the fireworks burst into colors above them. She looked over at Tatsuki who was sitting next to Yusuke. The two girls had been late to the fireworks and the only two spots left had been either sitting next to Yusuke or sitting next to Ichigo. When they saw where they could've sat, Orihime had looked at Tatsuki, hope filling her eyes.

Tatsuki smiled at Orihime and said, "You go sit next to Ichigo, I'll sit next to the new guy." Orihime smiled and gave her a hug, before running over toward Ichigo and sitting on the blanket. He smiled at her and they turned back to the fireworks.

Every so often Orihime would turn to look at Ichigo who would turn to look at her. They'd smilee and then turn away awkwardly. Finally Ichigo said "Orihime, I need to ask you something."

The girl blushed and said, "Yes? Kurosaki-san?"

He hesitated for a second and said, "Why do you trust Yusuke so much. Not with secrets or anything but that he wants to help us."

Orihime looked down at her blanket. That wasn't exactly the question she wanted to hear. "I'm not entirely sure Kurosaki-san. He told me some of the things he did. He told me a lot about what's going to happen in Soul Society. He's making sure that I'm prepared to help you rescue Kuchiki-san in Soul Society. I want to help you Kurosaki-san and Yusuke-san is going to help me do that. Yusuke-san helped me without asking for anything or because he needed to, so I trust him."

She paused and said, "He's a good person Kurosaki-san. You are a lot stronger. Just because you don't like him, doesn't mean he won't help you."

"Yeah, I guess," Ichigo said. "He's still an insane bastard. That stuff we did wasn't something I'd wish on anyone."

Orihime sighed and looked at the blanket. This really wasn't something she wanted to discuss with Kurosaki-san. "Kurosaki-san, Yusuke-san, well, he may not be the nicest person, but he wants to help us." He looked at her skeptically. "I asked him why he was helping. He told me, 'Ichigo is a good person. If Rukia Kuchiki is good enough for him to save, then she's good enough for me to help.' He will help us. We will get Kuchiki-san back."

He looked at her. Really looked at her. She was confident. She didn't doubt her words at all. She truly believed that with the help of Urameshi Yusuke, they would get Rukia back. "Thank you, Orihime-chan." She blushed and looked at the fireworks.

"Lets enjoy ourselves," she said lightly. "We have to leave tonight after all."

"Yeah." Ichigo smiled back at her and looked back at the fireworks. They could do it. They were _going_ to do it.

After the fireworks, Ichigo found himself carrying Yuzu and Karin. "Why do I have to carry them?" Ichigo whined.

Isshin opened his mouth to answer but Yusuke spoke up first, "It's because you're a strong teenager, while Isshin and I are old and weak." Ichigo snorted while Isshin and Yusuke threw their heads back and laughed. He grumbled and kept walking home.

"Thanks for inviting me back to your house Isshin-san." Yusuke said. "It's very nice of you, and I'm grateful that I can sleep in a real home rather than a hotel."

"It isn't a problem Yusuke-san. Will you be eating breakfast with us too?"

"I'm sorry but I won't be able to," Yusuke said. "I'm going to be leaving early and won't be able to stay. Thank you though."

To Yusuke's suprise the older man dropped to his knees in the middle of the street and threw his hands to the sky shouting, "Masaki-chan! Where have I gone wrong?! I will never be able to compare to you as a host?! Our home will forever be guestless?! Oh Masaki-chan!"

"Shut up dad. You're going to wake them up." Ichigo said, shifting Yuzu and Karin. "Dad, I'm going to be leaving for another week again. I, may not be back until the end of summer vacation.

"Really Ichigo?" Isshin said. "Remember, if you meet any good girls there be sure to introduce me."

Ichigo stared at him and he said, "Don't look at me like 'I'm worried about what will happen while I'm gone. I won't allow anyone to hurt my family while I'm around." He put his hand under his chin and said, "Hmm, that's a good line. I should write that down."

Yusuke glanced at Isshin while they walked down the street and wondered how responsible this man was. He really didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with Ichigo going off for more than a week on his own.

When they reached the Kurosaki residence Isshin stopped Yusuke outside and told Ichigo to put the girls to bed because he was too tired to do it. Ichigo grumbled but took them into the house.

Yusuke was about to follow them but Isshin put his arm on his shoulder and waited until Ichigo was out of earshot. "I don't know what's happening Urameshi-san. But you saved Masaki and me from that demon years ago, and I know if you're hear then something is going to happen."

"I don't know what you're talking about Isshin-san."

"The demon, Yusuke-san. Six years ago. He was stealing souls with a green sphere. He had stolen Karin's soul and I was going to do anything I could to take him down." Isshin looked at his hands and then back at Yusuke. "I was in the forest while killed him. I saw what happened." He put his hand on Yusuke's shoulder. "I want you to take care of Ichigo, Yusuke-san. I know he's strong. He's been taking care of all the Hollow's in this town with that Kuchiki's help. But, I'd feel better if he had someone with your kind of strength looking after him. Will you do that for me?" The fool was gone. In his place stood Isshin Kurosaki, the man who was willing to take down a demon to save the life of his daughter.

"I'll do what I can Isshin-san," and they walked into the house.

"How much longer do we have to wait," Ichigo grumbled. He seemed to be doing a lot of grumbling lately, Yusuke thought.

"It's one in the morning, Kurosaki," Yusuke said. "It can't be much longer."

Ichigo snorted and said, "At least the breeze is nice."

It was then that a red ball burst through the window and splattered onto the wall. Ichigo stared at it in shock. Yusuke just stared as it began to form the words, 'Please meet me at Urahara Shoten immediately' in gothic letters.

"What the hell is this?! It looks like a letter from someone who's about to die?! Can you wash this off?!"

Yusuke laughed at him and pointed at the bottom of the message.

"What...." The rest of the spatter turn into the words 'P.S. Someone who thinks this looks like a message from someone's whose about to die – you have no humor.' Ichigo growled and threw his pillow at the wall and shouted, "This is stupid!"

"Oh come on," Yusuke said, "You have to admit, this is kinda funny."

Ichigo grabbed his other pillow and threw it at Yusuke, "You're stupid too." Yusuke caught the pillow and tackled Ichigo to the ground. When he finally put Ichigo into a submission hold and the young shinigami was gasping for air and help. Yusuke let him go and said, "Meet you there," before jumping out the window.

He lept across the rooftops and was there in a few minutes. He flared his reiki to let Ichigo know that he was there and walked inside.

As he went down into the basement he saw Urahara and Yoruichi standing in front of the Senkai gate. Next to them were Orihime, Sado, and a strange boy with black hair in all-white. Orihime and Sado pulled the reiatsu back into themselves while the boy in white continued to point his bow made of reishi at him.

Yusuke paused on the steps and said, "I know it was strong, but I didn't think it was _that _intimidating."

The boy scowled and said, "I didn't know who it was. It wouldn't be prudent for me to be unprepared."

Yusuke snorted and said, "The last guy I met who talked like that ended up dead cause he thought it would be prudent for him to attack me before I attacked him."

"And was it prudent?"

Yusuke shrugged before saying, "I guess. I mean, I was there to kill him."

"Ishida-san, please calm down. There's no reason for you to be so hostile." Urahara walked up to them and said, "Urameshi Yusuke, this is Ishida Uryu, Quincy. Ishida-san, this is Urameshi Yusuke, former Reiki Tantei." Urahara looked around and said, "I'm surprised that Kurosaki-san is so late. I thought he'd want to get here as soon as possible."

Almost as soon as he spoke the lad in question sprinted across the rocky landscape and stopped in front of the gate panting. He stood up, still panting and said, "Hey Ishida, did you walk all the way here in that weird outfit?"

Ishida turned red and said, "How can you say it's weird?!" It was pretty weird though.

"Now if you'd all look over here," Urahara said while standing in front of the gate, "I'll tell you how to get through this gate without dying." Then he blurred from in front of the gate to behind Ichigo. He shoved his cane into the back of Ichigo's neck. His soul flew out of his body and his body fell to the ground. His three friends gathered around it and started talking.

"He's been completely separated," Ishida said.

"Oi," Orihime said, "Then Kurosaki, you can't enter this Kurosaki over here."

"Of course," Ichigo said, "You're saying it as if I'm Kintarou's candy. Why are you guys freely touching my body."

A small teddy bear jumped onto Ichigo's shoulder and shouted, "That's right! That body will soon be temporarily mine! You guys should not touch it!" Then he pointed at Inoue and said, "But Inoue-san, you can touch it!"

"Kon! Why are you here?!" Ichigo yelled.

"You're asking why? I'm going with you of course! You want to leave me behind? As the man, Kon, I will go through all these difficulties and reach the Soul Society-" Sado grabbed the toy and stared at it as it screamed.

Urahara raised his arms and waived them around to try to get everyone's attention, "Okay, look over here. I'm starting the explanation of the door now." Everyone gather around Urahara and he started talking some technical stuff about a Reishihenkankon and the Sankaimon and something about a Ketsugoufu. Yusuke didn't really pay attention. Way too technical for his taste.

"As you know the Soul Society is the world of souls," Urahara said.

"Kind of tells it all in the name," Yusuke said.

Urahara ignored him. "In order to go in there, you have to be a soul. But as you all know, the only one who can move around as a soul is Kurosaki, who is a shinigami. For others, even if their souls are separated from their bodies, they're still chained by the chain of fate. Not to mention to go to the Soul Society, it's even hard to move. That's why there's need for a reishihenkankei." And there he goes again.

It seemed Ichigo had the same thought as Yusuke since he tried to stop Urahara and go through the gate right then and there...and got a cane in the side for his troubles.

"There isn't a problem with the reishihenkankei" Urahara said, "It's with time. You only have four minutes to get to Soul Society. Once the time limit is up, the door will close, and you guys will be locked forever in the Dangai. Also, inside the Dangai is a current called Kouryuu, which would stop a soul, to prevent an enemy such as a Hollow from entering Soul Society. One foot caught by it and the chance of leaving the Dangai in time is almost impossible."

"Then, what should we do?" Orihime asked.

"Just walk forward," Yoruichi said. "Didn't I tell you? The heart and soul are connected. What's important is how your heart thinks." The cat stepped up toward the Senkai gate and said, "Only those who can do it may follow me." Yusuke almost laughed. The thought of a cat speaking in such grave tones was almost too much to bear. Did he honestly think that if they didn't think they could do it that they would be here.

"Everyone whose gathered here has made the choice and is determined to follow it," Ichigo said. Nice words kid. You've got the will, but do you have the strength to back it up?

"You should know very well, kid," the cat said. "If you lose, then you will never return."

"Of course, we'll win."

"Good words kid." Well now the cat knew he has the will. I've known since he beat me.

The gate swirled with a blue light before shining as it opened. "Are you ready?" Urahara said. "The moment it's opened you guys will dash through.

"Got it," Ichigo said. "Kon," The talking stuffed animal looked up from where it was hog-tied. "Take care of my family.

"MMMPPHHH! MMMPPHHHPMMPH!"

"Let's go!" Urahara said. And the six invaders ran into the shining white light of the Senkai gate into Soul Society

**A/N: Jesus, it's finally done! Sorry it took so long. I got lazy, and then I started playing Fallout 3, great game by the way, and now finals are coming up, so I decided to bang this out while I can. If things go well, I'll start the next chapter around May 15 (final's end) and finish in like a week or so depending on what I do. Hope you guys enjoyed it.**

**Also in the original they all met outside Urahara's shop, but since Ichigo and Yusuke wrestled before they went there, everyone got there before them.**

**Before anyone complains about Yusuke using other people's techniques I want to remind them that he's been training in Demon world for over three years and he's going to learn new techniques and some of his friends old one's. For example, for Kurama's stuff he'd be able to make a plant grow by pushing his energy into it, all he's doing is speeding up its natural process and using his energy for fuel. But he wouldn't be able to control it without pushing his energy into every part of it.**

**He can do what they can, but not nearly as easily or as well. For example Kuwabara can make his Rei Ken into any shape he wants, but Yusuke can only keep it in a sword shape. And Yusuke won't be able to use the Jigen To (Dimension Sword). Also I want you guys to remember that everything Yusuke does is raw energy. Everytime he fights a shinigami, he's going to need to use energy coating his hands and arms to fight them. It's gonna take a toll. It seems like he has no limits. He's going to. Also, I have an idea for when he goes against Aizen.**

**Please review, it always makes me feel better :D**

**Until next time: The Invasion**


	5. Chapter 4: New Arrivals

**Chapter**** 4: ****New ****Arrivals**

**A****/****N****: ****So ****yeah****…. ****It****'****s ****been**** 3 ****years ****and ****I ****decided ****to ****write ****again****… ****or ****something****… ****hope ****you ****guys ****like ****it****!**

'_Jeez__. 30 __seconds __into __the __portal __and __it__'__s __already __hit __the __fan__,'_ Yusuke thought. _'__And __it __wasn__'__t __even __any __of __the __shinigami__.'_

"Wow, it's really caught up with us," Ishida yelled.

Yoruichi called it the Kouryu. The Cleaner. It was supposed to be a defense against intruders. It was going to eat the intruders like it was supposed to. The only problem was that THEY WERE THE INTRUDERS!

"You don't say Ishida! If you don't run faster that damn thing is going to eat you!" Yusuke yelled at him.

"If you have time to look at it, you have time to run faster!" The cat said. "If you get caught you're finished!"

Of course _someone_ took the time to do exactly what the cat said not to do.

"Whooa! Help me!"

Yusuke wanted to sigh as he saw the problem. Ishida's stupid cape got caught in the Kouryu and now Ichigo was probably going to go back to save him and he was going to get caught and then everyone was going to get eaten. Except for Yusuke cause he could probably just blow the damn thing up.

Ichigo gritted his teeth and started to pull out his Zanpakutou. "It's your clothes you stupid idiot! If you weren't wearing those stupid things this wouldn't be a problem!"

Yusuke dropped his head and started gathering reiki into his hands. If the damn Cleaner was gonna eat Ishida and then cause everyone else to be eaten he might as well shoot it.

Yoruichi had shouted something about Ichigo's sword being eaten, when Chad ripped the cape off of Ishida's uniform and threw the Quincy over his shoulder.

"Hey Chad put me down. I can run on my own damn it! It's not like I'm... Hey guys! Something's coming. It looks like a giant train!"

Yoruichi glanced back eye's widening. "It's the Kototsu! It's only supposed to come out every seven days... But why today!"

"Well obviously we went on the wrong freaking day!" Yusuke shouted back.

"Hurry up! I can see the exit!" Orihime cried out with relief.

'There's no way we'll make it!" Ishida yelled, "It's right behind us!"

"Stop being depressing Ishida!" Ichigo yelled back. "We'll make it."

Then Orihime turned back yelling, "Hinagiku, Lily, Baigon, Santen Kesshun: I reject!"

* * *

Orihime sat up. "Woo!" She smiled looking around. It worked! She saved everyone! That stupid cleaner thing was going to eat everyone and she saved them. It was great using her powers to be able to help people, for something useful. She didn't have to attack anyone. She could just shield and heal everyone! Ha! Take that Urameshi-san!

She looked around at all her friends. Ishida had his face on the ground and his butt in the air while Ichigo was on the ground upside down. Sado and Urameshi were the only ones that weren't completely out of it.

She jumped up and ran over to Ichigo giggling, "Ha! Kurosaki's landing pose is so awesome!"

He finished rolling over saying, "It's not really something we expected Orihime."

"It's great though isn't it? It looks like no one is hurt!"

Yoruichi jump at Orihime hissing. "Did you hear anything that I said? You were lucky the shield was the only thing that touched the Kototsu. If it had been the main body of the Kouryu we all would've been dead!"

She hung her head, "Sorry. I didn't mean for anything bad to happen"

Before Yoruichi could say anything else, Ichigo picked the cat up by the scruff of its neck, "Why do you have to be so angry! Everything's fine! And we're only okay because of Inoue so leave it alone. Gah!" Ichigo grabbed his arm where Yoruichi had grasped at it with his claws.

"It's like you don't understand the situation at all." Yoruichi shot back. "It was incredibly risky. Urameshi was ready to attack as well. And it wouldn't have been nearly as risky as what you did."

Everyone turned to look at Urameshi who was digging around for something in his bag. Hearing his name he looked up a blank look on his face. Orihime tried not to giggle again. It was like he was saying 'who me?' He-He-He. He can be so silly sometimes.

"Hey come on guys," The former detective said. He had his hands up as if saying 'It's totally not my fault.' "You all seemed to have it under control hehehe."

Ichigo glared at Yusuke before looking away grumbling under his breath.

Orihime slid up next to Yusuke saying, "Um, Urameshi, Do you really think you could've beaten the Kototsu?" He opened his mouth to answer her when they heard.

"Hey, guys I think the smoke is clearing."

Yusuke glanced at her smiling before sliding away. Orihime pouted before following. He always did that. He was happy to tell them how he'd beaten this guy or that guy or how he was one of the strongest people in all Makai, wherever that was, but if she asked him about something now he would clam up and you couldn't get him to say a word. It didn't make any sense!

Ichigo stood up. He got so serious sometimes. But then again this was a serious mission. They were going to save Rukia and then get back to the human world. "So this is Soul Society?" He asked.

They all turned to Yoruichi. "This is Rukonkai. It's the outskirts where souls live when the first come to Soul Society. It's located around the Seireitei. Rukonkai is the poorest area but it is also where the most souls live."

She frowned. How come that cat knew so much about Soul Society. _'__I __mean __it__'__s __a __cat__! __It__'__s __not __like __cats __are __normally __experts __on __Soul __Society__.'_ She shook her head. _'__I__'__ve __been __spending __too __much __time __with __Urameshi__.'_ She thought giggling. _'__It__'__s __making __me __into __one __of __those __crazy __conspiracy __theorist __guys__.'_

"There isn't anyone here though..." Ishida said. And it was true. There wasn't anyone else around. "If this is where all the souls live then where were they?"

"I hope they're alright" Orihime whispered.

Ichigo started running towards a group of house in the distance. "Hey! That must be where those Shinigami guys live! I'm going first!"

"Yoruichi chased after him shouting, "Wait you idiot! You could die!"

Kurosaki froze looking back. His face was pale, eyes wide with shock. It was a good thing he stopped when he did because there was a huge crash as something fell from the sky right in front of him. A shockwave blew wind and dust into everyone's face, keeping everyone from moving forward while. Kurosaki was thrown backwards from the gate and something else landed in front of them.

"Kurosaki!"

* * *

It's not like Yusuke thought they would be able to escape notice forever. For one thing the only person who'd be able to get into Seireitai and back would probably have been Kurama and the fox didn't want anything to do with this in the first place.

But he really hoped they would've at least been in Seireitai before they got caught. Instead they were outside the gate with no real way of getting in. You just knew that the shinigami knew when that thing dropped. And there was that huge shinigami just standing in front of everyone else. Yusuke was standing on a roof not far away.

He couldn't afford to be identified by anyone in Soul Society. The treaty between Makai, Reikai, and Soul Society stated that Makai and Reikai would be separated from Soul Society and Hueco Mundo. The war had been brutal, terrible and lots of people and demons had died. Aside from the Hollows eating his subjects Raizen must've loved it.

From what Kurama said it wasn't something many wanted to happen again.

"_I __wasn__'__t __around __for __the __conflict__, __but __I__'__ve __heard __the __stories __from __Mukuro __and __Hokushin__. __Demons __ran __rampant __in __Nigenkai __and __Hollows __devoured __humans__, __demons__, __and __spirit __warriors__, __people __like __Genkai __or __the __Reikai __Tokubetsu __Boueitai__, __without __any __response __from __Soul __Society __or __Reikai__. __They __were __too __busy __fighting __each __other __and __ignoring __everything else __around __them__. __Reikai__'__s __policies __during __this __time __aren__'__t very __surprising __considering __all __the __news __that__'__s __come __out __recently __about __Enma__, __but __it __isn__'__t __a __time __anyone __wants __to __return __to__. __You __must __be __very __careful __Yusuke__. __The __peace __was __always __tenuous __at __the __best __of __times __but __Genryusai and Enki __had both __been __alive __at __the __time __of __the __war__. __Koenma __wasn__'__t__. __Enki __and __Koenma __are __more __likely __to __want __peace __than __the __Captain__-__Commander __is__._

When Yusuke has asked Koenma about the war he had the same response.

"_I__'__ve __heard __stories __about __that __war __Yusuke__. __It __wasn__'__t __pretty__. __For __either __side__. __Reikai __against __Soul __Society__. __Demons __against __Hollows__."_ _Koenma __said__. "__It __wasn__'__t __enjoyable __for __anyone__. __My __father __always __said __that __it __was __one __of __the __most __turbulent __events __in __our __history __aside __from __the __Makai __Uprisings __afterwards__."_

"_Yeah __well__, __we __all __know __what __kind __of __a __saint __your __father __was__. __It__'__s __not __like __his __opinion __carries __much __weight __these __days__." __The __former __detective __responded sarcastically__._

"_Indeed__. __In __any __case__, __despite __the __fact __that __Enki __is __one __of __the __more __peace __loving __demons __in __Makai__, __he __will __attack __if __Genryusai __offers __any __threat__. __Soul __Society __and __the __Hollows __were __what __caused __Makai __to __gather __together __under __leaders __in __the __first __place__. __He __won__'__t __hesitate __to __attack __first __if __he __hears __they__'__re __banging __the __war __drums__. __And __he __will __be __infinitely __better __prepared __than __we __are __right __now__. __Our __recent __change __in __leadership __has __put __Reikai __in __disarray__. __We __can__'__t __afford __you __to __be __seen __and __recognized__. __The __toddler __tossed __a __long __strip __of __cloth __at __the __former __detective __and __said__, "__I __suggest __you __wear __this__. __Genkai __sends __her __blessings__."_

"_Said __if __I __screwed __it __up __she__'__d __hunt m__e __down __and __make __me __regret __it __huh__," __Yusuke __said __with __a __grin__. "__You __tell __that __old __bat t__hat __if __she __still __thinks __I__'__m __that __dumbass __from __all __those __year __ago __she __has __another __thing __coming__."_

"_I__'__ll __do __my __best__," __Koenma __said __with __a __grin__. "__And __you __should __do __something __about __your __demon __energy__. __Soul __Society __still __has __their __old __barriers __up __from __the __old __days__. __They __can __detect __Youkai__. __So __if __you __decide __to __pull __out __all __the __stops __they__'__ll __know__._

It was definitely something to think on. If they knew that a Mazoku was part of the invasion party Soul Society would go bezerk. Better to have some kind of disguise ready than have someone from Seireitai that pays attention to the short communications required by the treaty.

The gate guardian had just challenged Ichigo to a battle as their strongest member. As far as Yusuke could tell the gate guardian hadn't even noticed any of the others. _'__I __should __probably __get __that __ready __now __anyway__. __Don__'__t __want __anyone __to __remember __what __I __look __like__.' _Yusuke thought as he pulled the items from his backpack.

* * *

Jidanbo stared at the oranged haired ryoka before him. He stood there just staring at him. He scowled as two of the other ryoka started running forward. The gate guardian pull one of his axes out and smashed the ground in front of them. He started at them over the wall.

These insolent uncivilied ryoka. If they were going to be in this city they ought to know what the rules are. "You sicken me. Are you so uncivilized? This city has _rules__._ First: You wash your hands when you come back home. Second: You don't each food that has fallen on the floor. Third: A duel is nothing but one-on-one." He grinned over the wall at them. "My first opponent will the that spiky orange haired kid. Since you're all visitors here, you should follow the rules of the city."

The two ryoka looked at each other. Then they started whispering to each other.

"I'll make a hole in the wall. Then you..."

He scowled at the ryoka. Didn't they have any manners? What rude people. "Hey! What are you doing? Are you planning some kind of sneak attack?"

"Wow, his ears are really good..."

The orange haired kid cocked his head saying, "HEY! Chad! Orihime!"

"Kurosaki-kun? Are you okay?" It was the girl. Well her name must be Orihime then. Well if they wanted to talk that was fine as long as they didn't try to interrupt his duel he wasn't going to interrupt them. He wasn't rude like they were. Trying to interrupt a duel, honestly.

The spiky haired kid kid kept talking, "You guys just stay there alright. Don't do anything."

Jindanbo smiled. At least this one had some manners. He knew what honor was, fighting one-on-one to test your strength against another.

"Kurosaki-kun, are you sure you're strong enough?" This time it was that guy that silly cape.

"Of course I'm strong enough. That rat bastard put me through hell. I don't know how but he turned five days in months of torture. And I will have my revenge, muahahahahaha." Ok, what was wrong with the orange guy? Jidanbo started edging away from the spiky haired ryoka.

'_He__'__s __starting __to __creep __me __out__. What kind of person laughs maniacally like that. __Maybe __fighting __him __wasn__'__t __the __best __idea__... __Wait __you __can__'__t __show __weakness __now__. __What__'__ll __they __say __if __they __hear __you __were __scared __of __a __ryoka__!'_

"Right! Now I don't remember asking you to wait on me. It seems like you're the disrespectful one."

Jidanbo growled at Ichigo's words. "So disrespectful..." he murmured. "**You ****should ****be ****grateful****! ****I ****wasted ****my ****time****! ****Waiting ****for ****you****!**" Each sentence was punctuated by a swing of his ax.

He chuckled as the smoke cleared, waiting to see the remains of the ryoka. The first thing he saw was black cloth. _'__Not __surprising__, __he __was __wearing __the __Shihakusho__: a __shinigami __uniform__.' _But as the figure below him became clearer his foreboding increased.

'_How __could __he __be __so __powerful__!'_

"Come now," Ichigo said with a smirk, "That wasn't very polite of you."

* * *

He looked at the gate listening to the clash on the other side. Jidanbo's axes clanging against a sword. There was a pause and murmured voices before the sharp _snap_ of a broken weapon. There were more murmurs. The gate let out a grinding noise as it started to rise.

'_Well __we __can__'__t __very __well __have __that __now __can __we__.'_

"What's wrong, why aren't you going in?" A voice asked. "Is something wrong?" Gin smiled. Of course he wasn't going in. He was here to prevent it.

An orange haired boy walked into the opening. "Who's this guy?" He asked a glare on his face.

"The leader of squad three," The gate guardian murmured. "Ichimaru Gin."

"Ah ah," the captain said with a grin. "This isn't allowed."

A flash passed by the gate guardian's head and seconds later his left arm fell to the ground.

Gin had already returned his zanpakutou to his sheath as he said, "You're a gate keeper. You aren't supposed to be opening doors."

His left arm crashed onto a nearby building as blood gushed out of the stump or Jidanbo's left arm. His eyes bulged with pain as he tried to keep the gate from closing on him. The gate guardian let out a cry as he collapsed onto one knee, the gate resting on his back. Finally he stabilized panting with exertion.

"Wow you can still hold that gate up with one hand. It's no wonder you're one of the elites of Soul Society." His smile widened in pleasure. "However you still fail as the gate guardian."

"But when the gate guardian loses, he opens the gate..." Jidanbo said earnestly. "It's only natural!"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" The captain said. "You misunderstood. Even when the guardian loses, he still may not open the door. If the guardian lost that would mean he must be dead."

Jidanbo's eye's widened as he waited for Gin to cut into him with his zanpakutou. It was inevitable. The captain said it would be done. He raised his zanpakutou to cut down the gate guardian before a cleaver slammed into the soul cutter.

"**What ****do ****you ****think ****you****'****re ****doing ****punk****!"**

* * *

"**What ****do ****you ****think ****you****'****re ****doing ****punk****!"**

Ichigo was shaking inside. That white coat only meant one thing if Jidanbo hadn't already said it he would have known anyway. Ichimaru Gin was a captain. If what that bastard Urameshi said was true then there's no way he'd be able to beat him. Hell Urameshi basically said that if they fought a captain there it'd be like a mouse trying to fight a bird. It certainly wouldn't be pretty. The only thing to do is just ignore everything he'd ever heard about captains. Yeah, that'd totally work.

"We won fair and square and you just pop out and start attacking. What the hell!" The captain stared back. At least that stupid grin was off his face. "Hey Inoue, I want you to look after Jidanbo." Ichigo turned his attention back to Ichimaru. He really didn't want to do this. "Come on, if you're so eager to fight, then I'll be your opponent." _Please__please__pleasepleaseplease__._

"Hahaha. You're quite an interesting guy. Aren't you afraid of me?"

_Shit __how__'__d __he __know__._ "Absolutely no-"

"**Stop ****messing ****around I****chigo****! ****We ****have ****to ****retreat****!"**

He turned staring at Yoruichi. That would definitely be the smart thing to do. But if the Gotei 13 saw him backing down now they would know that they could handle him no problem. It was better to have people wonder why you aren't afraid of them than know for sure. After all, a good reputation is almost as good as a weapon to enforce it. It definitely cut down on how much work you had to do.

"**What ****do ****you ****mean****? ****I****'****m ****just ****getting ****started****!"** Never let them see you sweat.

"So... you're Kurosaki Ichigo?"

_Shit__._ "You know me?" This definitely wasn't good. This was supposed to start as an infiltration. It would've been fine if they had just thought some random people had come to invade their home. They wouldn't have known what they were up to. If they knew they were here for Rukia...

"So... he does exist..." Gin said thoughtfully. He went to walk back toward Seireitai when there was a flash and a man wearing a cloth mask appeared in front of Ichigo.

"Yes he does exist. But you don't have to worry about that right now." A brown eye gleamed with blue reiki through the slit. "I'll be your opponent."

* * *

'_Who __the __hell __was __this __guy__,'_ Ishida thought. _'__Is __he __a __shinigami__? __Or __is __he __something __else__? __Some __weird __hollow __with __cloth __instead __of __bone __for __a __mask__. __But __Hollows __aren__'__t __human __looking __so __it __had __to __be __a __person__... __Who __the __hell __was __it__?'_

The masked man was wearing white cloth pants and shirt with a green sash around where they meet. He had a set of metal gauntlets which looked like they were made as all one piece with an orb set in the wrist of each one.

"Who the hell are you? This is my fight and I would thank you if you didn't interrupt it!" Of course. Instead of just waiting for the person to say who he was Kurosaki was just going to shout out the question.

"Don't worry about that Kurosaki. All you need to worry about is that right now this _man_." And the masked man said the word man with all the derision someone would use if they were describing a mass murderer. "This man is out of your league and both he and I know it. So why don't you run along and play with your big pointy stick. And really it's so big it's like you're compensating for something. So go back to your friends and leave this snake to me."

Ichigo stared at the man before turning red. Ishida looked at the glove on his wrist where his bow would materialize. _'__Compensating__...'_ His face fell. He was sure glad that guy wasn't part of their group or something. _'__But__then__how__did__he__know__Kurosaki__'__s__name__...'_

He was about to speak up when Orihime shout out, "Kurosaki-kun, I need your help with Jidanbo!"

Ichigo whirled around saying, "But Inoue."

"But nothing," This was certainly a new side to her, even if her face probably couldn't get any redder. "Do you want him to die! I need your help!"

Ichigo turned grumbling and ran back to Inoue.

Ishida ran to join them, "Why did you call him back. We don't even know who that guy is."

Inoue looked back and said, "It's Urameshi-san. He's in disguise so that no one in Soul Society realizes who he is. If they do, he and his friends will get in a whole lot of trouble."

"You mean that punk," Ishida sputtered. "What does he think he's doing?"

Kurosaki groaned, "Jeez, if he was going to be pulling stuff like this he could've at least told me. What would've happened if I attacked him? And close your mouth Ishida or something's going to fly into it."

Ishida's mouth closed with a snap and he looked back to the two dangerous men just standing there holding a conversation like they had met at a coffee shop or something. "If what I'm feeling right now is correct he would've flattened you." Ichigo glared at the Quincy. "What? Don't look at me like that. I remember how much reiryoku you had before they took Rukia away. I don't know how much you could have increased but it can't have been as much as he's letting out right now."

"I matched him before. It couldn't have been everything he'd had because he could still walk around while I was collapsed on the floor. It couldn't have been everything though because if it was he should've been on the ground too."

They heard a shout and reiki shot out of Urameshi's fist toward the captain. Gin's mouth was moving and they saw another flash before his was overtaken.

Ishida's eyes watered with pain even as he covered his face with an arm. He looked over and saw Ichigo shielding Inoue from any backlash.

At last the former detective stopped his attack and looked at what remained of the captain.

When he saw Gin surrounded by a shield unharmed he gasped. _'__How __could __he __have __survived __that__!'_

"Well you are quite strong aren't you. But now it's my turn." He raised his zanpakutou at Yusuke.

The mazoku laughed saying "What are you going to do with that itty bitty knife. My dumbass friend is more intimidating than you are!"

Gin grinned wider in response. "This isn't an knife..."

"Shoot him, Shinshou."

The captain's zanpakutou which has started out so small, extended. Faster than most could see Yusuke grabbed at the tip, hands glowing blue with reiki. He slid backwards one foot. Then two. Then he was lifted off his feet and soared through the air. Propelled by Gin's zanpakutou he hit Jidanbo and pushed both of them through the gate. Flying through the air farther and farther from the gate before Jidanbo finally hit the ground and stopped.

The gate had already started to close and Gin stood at the doorway waving to them. "Bye bye!" He called out a smile on his face.

Yusuke hit the ground hard one hand in front of him for balance before standing and drawing one hand back behind him. An orb appeared in his hand and he threw it out in front of him a blast of reiki erupting from his palm. Gin saw the blast coming towards him and took a step back. The gate hit the ground just as the blast impacted and the wall rumbled from the blast, the air above the wall turning bright blue from the discharge.

"Hmm," he murmured, a frown on his face. "That really isn't supposed to happen." He turned to leave, summoning a smile back to his face. "Nothing for it now. Oh, well. I should get back to for that meeting."

* * *

**A****/****N****: ****Well, ****much ****less ****in ****length ****than ****I ****was ****hoping ****for****, ****but ****c****'****mon ****guys**** 3 ****years****? ****Yeah ****hopefully ****it ****won****'****t ****be ****another**** 3 ****years ****before ****I ****write ****the ****next ****chapter**** :) ****Review ****so ****I ****know ****I ****can ****still ****do ****a ****good ****job ****and ****stuff****.**

**Glossary: **

**_Reikai __Tokubetsu __Boueitai: The Spirit Force. Reikai professional spirit warriors to fight against A class Demon incursions. Back during the war they were much larger and were Reikai's answer to the Gotei 13. After the war was over only the elites, warriors that could measure up to the captains of Gotei 13 were kept in the Spirit Force._**

**Until ****next ****time****: **

"**What ****do ****you ****mean ****you****'****re ****gonna ****be ****at ****half ****strength ****the ****whole ****time****!"**

"**Grrr****, ****cannonballs ****are ****stupid****."**

"**This ****is ****the ****worst ****way ****to ****get ****around ****ever****!"**


End file.
